Goblet of fire
by Shirahoshi
Summary: Instead of three wizard schools at the Tournament now there are four... So Harry will represent the fifth one. What will happen now?
1. Arrival

Characters of Harry Potter are owned by J.K. Rowling

Characters of Bleach are Owned by Tite Kubo.

Idea of crossover by me.

-.-.-.-.-

This is ridiculous, Ichigo decided.

These children were staring at them like they were from another world, not another country. He _hated _being watched.

'Take it easy, Ichigo, ' said a voice next to him. 'It'll be like this for a while.'

'Thanks, Rukia. It helped. A lot. Really.' She shrugged.

'Whatever. What do you think, what should we do now?' She glared up to the enormous castle.

'Don't worry, just come after me.' Both of them - in fact everybody including them sighed. When Headmaster Urahara said that usually there was more than enough reason to worry.

'Well, that wasn't as exciting entering as it was the Durmstrang's. And if it's a Triwizard Tournament, why did three schools come?' Said Ron. Hermione grunted.

'I'm sure that Dumbledore will tell us later. And just because you were way too busy with Krum, that doesn't mean nothing interesting had happened.'

'What? Those guys came out of a huge gate. Big deal.'

'It is. Since they were walking in the air.'

'What?'

'But isn't that impossible?' Asked Harry. The girl shot him a glare.

'Harry, since you're a wizard, you should know that everything is possible. Well, mostly. But to keep up this kind of spell, you have to hold your wand, or at least point it on the person whom you want to raise into the air. But can you see wands with them?' Harry looked at the strange delegation, whose meanwhile landed on the earth and were walking towards them.

'No.'

'That's it!I wonder how they did it. What on the earth do they doing with those?' The same question ran through the students of Hogwarts. Even McGonagall's eyes widened slightly. Each of the girls and boys were carrying a sword in different shapes and sheath colors. The most noticeable one was probably an orange haired boy's, whose weapon looked much more like a large kitchen knife than an actual sword.

'Professor Dumbledore! Long time no see! It's a pleasure to meet you again!' Said a strange man in green clothes and even much more strange sandals. He pointed at the foreigners behind him. 'My students'

'Same here, Professor Urahara. I hope you'll find your rooms comfortable.'

'Oh, I'm sure we will.' The orange haired one rolled his eyes. The girl next to him rewarded it with an elbow in his stomach. Harry raised one of his eyebrows. The way they acted like they were the asian version of Ron and Hermione. 'May we go in?'

'Certainly, certainly. The guests go first,' Smiled the Headmaster. The crowd moved slowly after them.

Rukia gasped when they stepped into the building. Even him was slightly amazed. Yes, their Shinou Academy was big enough, but not _this_ big.

'Tell me that I'm only dreaming! Krum is here, Harry_! Viktor Krum!_' Ichigo turned towards the excited voice. He saw a tall redhead walking next to a shorter black haired boy who was wearing glasses and a bushy, brown haired girl who seemed to be kind of angry.

'For Heaven's sake, Ron, he's only a Quidditch player!'

'Only a Quidditch player? Hermione, he's one of the greatest Seekers int the world!I had no idea he was still at school!' He grinned. Krum? He must be joking. True he has some very nice move, he has to admit.

'So, what do you think, why did he brought us here?' The girl asked.

'How should I know? If it's not another of Urahara's special-and-deadly training, then I don't really care either.'

'D'you think he'd sign my hat in lipstick?' A girl asked. Rukia growled to his greatest pleasure. (However even he did not know why.)

'Hey, Rukia! Ichigo! Wait up!'

'It's not our problem that you're way too slow.'

'Whatever. What do you think, where should we sit?' Renji asked. Rukia looked over the place. The Beaxubatons had already chosen a table and so did the Durmstrang.

'Table red and gold it is.' Decided the girl than turned and waved to their schoolmates.

'Over here! Come and sit over here! Over here! Hermione, budge up, make a space!' It was the same boy who was spoking about Krum like he was a god, not a human.

'What?'

'It's too late.' Said the boy bitterly. The girl rolled her eyes.

'Mind if _we_ sit here?' Asked Ichigo. The one who was wearing glasses, a black haired boy, looked up at him.

'No, not at all.' He moved a little bit away to give them some space.

'Thanks.'

'Yeah, that's right, smarm up to him, Malfoy, I bet Krum can see right through him, though... Bet he gets people fawning over him all the time... Where d'you reckon they're going to sleep? We could offer him a space in our dormitory, Harry... I wouldn't mind giving him my bed, I could kip on a camp bed.' Ichigo and the brown-haired girl growled in the same moment. This kind of fanaticism was just way too much for them. The redhead turned to the older boy.

'Excuse me?'

'They look a lot happier than the Beauxbatons lot, By the way, what about you? Wait a minute... Where are your swords?' Rukia smiled.

'You mean this?' She took a pure white wand out of her kimono's sleeve. The other girl's mouth fell open.

'No way! We all saw... I mean...'

'You are not wrong. They are swords. But we can change their appearance while they're in their sealed form. Even Ichigo can do that, with a little help.'

'Sealed?'  
>'Yes, you see, umm...'<p>

'Hermione Granger. These two are Harry Potter and Ronald Weasly, Ron for short.'

'Thanks. So as I said...' She shut her mouth, stood up and bowed as the teachers and headmasters/headmistress came in and went towards the table of the teachers. Ichigo (though he with an even deeper scowl on his face) and the other students of Shihou Academy did the same along with the Beaxubatons, save for the bowing. The trio exchanged strange looks, while some of the others were laughing at the way they acted, but they seemed to not mind or care about them. They did not sit down until Madame Maxime and Headmaster Urahara did not do so. Dumbledore himself was still standing Which meant that he has something to say.

'Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and—most particularly—guests,' He said and smiled at the foreign students. 'I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts. I hope and trust that your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable.' One of the girls of Beaxubatons whose head was still wrapped in a scarf, started to laugh.

'No one is making you stay' Whispered - or hissed - Hermione.

'The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast,' said Dumbledore. 'I now invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!' He sat down and started to talk with probalby Karkaroff. Ichigo grunted.

'That would be the Apocalypse itself.' He said.

'Why?'

'You see, some of the students of Shihou Academy does not know how to act. And their favourite sport to start a fight with everyone they had met.'

'Oh. By the way we still do not know your names.'  
>'Kurosaki Ichigo. The girl here is Rukia Kuchiki and Pineapple is Renji Abarai.'<p>

'Shut up, Strawberry!'

'What's that?' Asked Ron, pointing at some kind of strange soup.

'Bouillabaisse.'

'Bless you.'

'It's French,' said Hermione, 'I had it on holiday summer before last. It's very nice. However I'm not sure about the others.'

'That's,' Rukia pointed at an other kind of soup, 'is miso. And the pasta is soba. Both of them is quite delicious.'

'I beleive you.' Said the redhead and took some of the "normal" food in his opinion. Hermion was braver and put some strange green something onto her plate and spit it out after a second.

'And that is wasabi. Be careful with it.'

'Thanks.' Said the girl and drank a big glass of water. 'Why are there plus two seats?' Harry shook his head.

'I don't know. Skrewts doing all right, Hagrid?' The boy shouted to a huge man who was incredibly tall and wide. They could go as a pair with the French headmistress, thought Rukia.

'Thrivin.' Called the man back.

'Yeah, I'll just bet they are,' said Ron quietly. 'Looks like they've finally found a food they like, doesn't it? Hagrid's fingers.'

'What's a skrewt?' Asked Renji. The trio paled.

'You don't want to know, and you'll probably never meet one if you're lucky...'

'Excuse me, are you wanting ze bouillabaisse?'

It was the same girl who was laughing during Dumpledore's speech. She had finally removed her muffler. A long sheet of silvery-blonde hair fell almost to her waist. She had large, deep blue eyes, and very white, even teeth. Ron's face turned to deep red. He was glaring at the girl and opened his mouth to answer, but only a faint gurgling noise came out. Ichigo looked at him.

'Hey, are you all right?'

'Yeah, have it.' Said Harry and pushed the bowl towards the girl.

'You 'ave finished wiz it?'

'Yeah,' said the redhead finally. 'Yeah, it was excellent.'

'It was. And it was delicious.' Said the redhead finally. The girl picked up the bowl and went back to the table of the Ravenclaw. Ron looked after her like he has never ever seen a woman. Harry started to laugh and the noise seemed to jog Ron back to his senses.

'She's a veela.'  
>'Of course she is not. I don't see anyone else gaping at her like an idiot!' She is not entirely right, thought Ichigo. As the girl went through the hall many other boy turned after her. Some of them even left his mouth open. He scowled as he heard Yumichika sigh who was sitting next to a ghost. He had to admit, the girl was beautiful, but that was not a reason to act like an idiot.<p>

'I'm telling you, that's not a normal girl! They don't make them like that at Hogwarts!'

'They make them okay at Hogwarts.' Said Harry. Renji followed his look. It landed on a black haired girl, who was sitting near the beauty.

'I just don't understand one thing. Why are your English is so good?'

'It shouldn't be?'

'No, it's just strange, since both the Durmstrang and Beaxubatons' students English is not that perfect..'

'Years of practice. By the way, if you three put your eyes back in, you'll be able to see who have just arrived.' Said Rukia and pointed at the teacher's table. The empty chairs next to Urahara and Madame Maxime was now ''filled'' with Ludo Bagman and Barty Crouch.

'What are they doing here?' Asked Harry.

'They organized the Tournament, didn't they? I suppose they wanted to be here to see the start.' Answered Hermione. The destroyed main dish disappeared from the plates and bowls and the desserts are appeared. After these were gone too, Dumbledore stood up and a pleasant sort of tension filled the Hall now.

'The moment has come,' said the old wizard. 'The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket.."

'The what?' Ron shrugged.

'Just to clarify the procedure that we will be following this year. But first, let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr. Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation'—there was a smattering of polite applause—'and Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports.' There was a much louder clapping for Bagman than for Crouch.

'Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch have worked tirelessly over the last few months on the arrangements for the Triwizard Tournament, and they will be joining myself, Professor Karkaroff, Professor Urahara and Madame Maxime on the panel that will judge the champions' efforts. "The casket, then, if you please, Mr. Filch.' A middle-height grumpy looking man carried in a great wooden chest encrusted with jewels. It looked extremely old. Yumichika growled - probably it wasn't beautiful enough for his taste.

'The instructions for the tasks the champions will face this year have already been examined by Mr. Crouch and Mr. Bagman, and they have made the necessary arrangements for each challenge. There will be three tasks, spaced throughout the school year, and they will test the champions in many different ways.. their magical prowess—their daring—their powers of deduction—and, of course, their ability to cope with danger.' At this last word, the Hall was filled with a silence so absolute that nobody seemed to be breathing. 'And here I have to mention something. As you may noticed there is one more school which is taking part in the Tournament, one which has never been before. In order to renew the cooperation with the magical world of other continents we decided to invite a fourth school, named Shinou Academy. And to our greatest pleasure they accepted the challenge what it means. Furthermore the even't can't be called as a Triwizard Tournament, so I hope everybody will be satisfied with the name Tournament of the Four.'

'Why do they called it Triwizard Tournament then?' Whispered Ron.

'As you know, champions compete in the tournament,' Dumbledore went on calmly, 'one from each of the participating schools. They will be marked on how well they perform each of the Tournament tasks and the champion with the highest total after task three will win the Triwizard Cup. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire.'

'Triwizard cup? So that's why. They can't just change the name of the prize. Anything else would sound rather stupid.'

'Would you just shut your mouth? I'm trying to listen.' Hissed Rukia. Dumbledore meanwhile took out his wand and tapped three times upon the top of the casket. The lid creaked slowly open. The professor reached inside it and pulled out a large, roughly hewn wooden cup. It would have been entirely unremarkable had it not been full to the brim with dancing blue-white flames.

"Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet. Aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to put their names forward. Tomorrow night, Halloween, the goblet will return the names of the three it has judged most worthy to represent their schools. The goblet will be placed in the entrance hall tonight, where it will be freely accessible to all those wishing to compete.

To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation,I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire once it has been placed in the entrance hall. Nobody under the age of seventeen will be able to cross this line. Finally, I wish to impress upon any of you wishing to compete that this tournament is not to be entered into lightly. Once a champion has been selected by the Goblet of Fire, he or she is obliged to see the tournament through to the end. The placing of your name in the goblet constitutes a binding, magical contract. There can be no change of heart once you have become a champion. Please be very sure, therefore, that you are wholeheartedly prepared to play before you drop your name into the goblet. Now, I think it is time for bed. Good night to you all.'

'An Age Line! Well, that should be fooled by an Aging Potion, shouldn't it? And once your name's in that goblet, you're laughing—it can't tell whether you're seventeen or not!' Said an other redhead who seemed to be a relative of Ron. Rukia raised an eyebrow. As long as she knew Dumbledore was one of the greatest wizards in the whole word, considering living and dead. Do they really think that he would forget something like that?

'But I don't think anyone under seventeen will stand a chance. We just haven't learned enough...'

'She's right, you know. Anybody would be dead in a minute with that attitude.' She shrugged. If that moron really wants to go and die. She hoped that not everybody in that school has a similar character like his, or Hogwart's will be in a big trouble during the competition. She snickered. Strange. Now that they found out that they're their enemies in fact, she is still worrying about them.

'_And __why would that be__ wrong?_' She frowned.

'_Sode no Shirayuki?_'

'_Who else would be?_'

'...for yourself, midget.' She shook her head, coming back to the real world.

'Excuse me?'

'I said, speak for yourself. Anyway, you'll try and get in, won't you, Harry?'

'Where is he?' said Ron, who seemed not to listen to the whole conversation, but looking looking for somebody in the crowd. 'Dumbledore didn't say where the Durmstrang people are sleeping, did he?' Ichigo grimaced. If something, this is hardcore fanship.

'Back to the ship, then. Viktor, how are you feeling? Did you eat enough? Should I send for some mulled wine from the kitchens?'

'Professor, Ivood like some vine...' Said one of the other Durmstrang boys hopefully.

'I wasn't offering it to you, Poliakoff. I notice you have dribbled food all down the front of your robes again, disgusting boy.'

Karkaroff turned and led his students toward the doors, reaching them at exactly the same moment as the two trios. Harry stopped to let him walk through first.

'Thank you.' Said Karkaroff carelessly, and then froze. He turned his head back to the black haired boy and stared at him as though he couldn't believe his eyes. Behind their headmaster, the students from Durmstrang came to a halt too. Karkaroff's eyes moved slowly up Harry's face and fixed upon his scar. The Durmstrang students were staring curiously at Harry too. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw comprehension dawn on a few of their faces. The boy with food all down his front nudged the girl next to him and pointed openly at Harry's forehead. Ichigo rolled his eyes.

'Yes, that's Harry Potter, we know that, you know that, everybody is happy. Now, please, would you go?' Karkaroff paled at the sound of his tone in anger. He didn't care. It wasn't the first time when he disrespected the teachers, or even worse, the laws. The Dursmtrang's headmaster opened his mouth to enter and then closed his eyes widened. He followed his gase. A strange figure was standing beside them on his staff, his magical eye glaring unblinkingly at the Durmstrang headmaster.

Now all the colors were drained from Karkaroff's face. A terrible look of mingled fury and fear came over him.

'You!'

'Me. And unless you've got anything to say either to Potter or that orange haired brat, Karkaroff, you might want to move. You're blocking the doorway.'

It was true; half the students in the Hall were now waiting behind them, looking over one another's shoulders to see what was causing the holdup.

Without another word, Professor Karkaroff swept his students away with him.

'Shinou Academy, here! I ask all students of the Shinou Academy to come to the second floorsteps!' They went towards the doorsteps where a strict looking woman was waiting for them.

'Does anybody missing? No? Then, follow me.' She led them through several secret doors and tunnels. Ichigo was wondering whether they'll stop anytime soon when she stopped in front of the portrait of a blonde haired woman.

'Are they the ones?' Asked she. The professor nodded and wishpered something to her. The picture turned out to be a door, which opened into a bigger room. She quickly stepped in and after the last girl came in, too she closed it.

'I am is Professor McGonagall. Nice to meet you all. I have to tell you some information before anybody would decide to go.Listen to me well, because I'll only say it once. This place will be your home for the year, until the end of the Tournament. We all hope you'll find it comfortable enough. You have to use passwords to get in, and we hope none of you'll be stupid enough to tell anybody else where is this place can be found or what the password is.' She looked at Kisuke and then at Ganju. 'This word is 'soul burial'. As for some rules - I would like to ask you not to wander around after eleven. Also, the forest next to the castle is forbidden to go except if you have permission to do so or have to practice. We were informed that many of you are capable of wandless magic - I ask you not to use magic with or without a wand either. And if it's possible keep your swords sealed into their wand form. We would not like our students to get... Ideas. I hope you understood everything. Good night to you all.' A second later.

'"Soul burial"? Really? Couldn't they come up with anything more... Original?'

'Nothing is good enough for you, right, Renji?'

'Hey, I'm just saying that...'

'Okay, okay.' Rukia yawned. 'Where is the girl's room?'

-end-of-chapter-

Have mercy on me! I'm a beginner at writing, and this is my very first Bleach story. (Well, I've found out others too, but this is the first which has a full chapter. :P ) Also I'm not from any English languaged country... That's why my grammar very poor. (If I do not really understand the grammar of my mother language, how am I supposed to do so with the English one?)

As you may have noticed, I took out parts from the book. I try to change at least a part of them to not exactly copy the book. (And sometimes I translate it back to English from my language... It's interesting to read what I translated and what did Rowling wrote afterwards...) Ah, well... That's all for now...


	2. All Halloween's Night

Ichigo yawned and put some cereal into his bowl. After of an hour fighting over the beds - because nobody wanted to sleep in the (who knows why) pink ones - he had finally fell asleep around midnight just to be awaken four hours later by Urahara to throw their names into the goblet and practice the basic kidous at the Quiddich field.

"Ichigo, you're about to soak the table."

"Ah, sorry, Rukia." He quicky put down the bottle and the corners of his lips twitched when he heard Yumichika complain about "the terrible food, which will ruin his beautiful skin".

''Sometimes I wonder whether he is a girl not a boy. Even Neliel does not care about her skin as much as he does. I don't know how can he and Ikkaku be best friends.''

''Probably because he likes eyeshadows. What is this?'' He turned towards the door. It sounded like a bomb has exploded which contained some kind of gas which makes one laugh. Rukia shrugged.

''Dunno. Probably some morons again who thought that they're much more clever than one of the greatest wizards in the world who ever lived. And now they have nice, long beards too.''

''Good morning.'' Said the girl from the trio whom they met last nigh - Hermione? - as she sat down next to them. She had a faint smile on her face and the boys were still smiling.

"How long?" Asked Rukia. The brown haired girl gave her a confused look.

"Excuse me?"

"The beard,'' explained the midget. "Is it long, or only stubble?''

"Well, about a meter or so." The corner of Rukia's lips twitched.

"Sweeeet." Suddenly it sounded like a bomb exploded in the entrance hall which contained the voice of hundreds of people - though this time it wasn't laughing, but cheering, out of control.

"Well, I've done it! Just put my name in!" Walked over a tall, black girl to them. She gave a curious look to the Japanese student, but turned her gaze right back when the redhead spoke.

''You're kidding!''

''Are you seventeen then?'' Asked Harry.

"Course she is, can't see a beard, can you?"

"I had my birthday last week." Answered the girl.

"Well, I'm glad someone from Gryffindor's entering," said Hermione. "I really hope you get it, Angelina!"

"Thanks, Hermione." said Angelina, smiling at her.

''Yeah, better you than Pretty-Boy Diggory.'' said a boy, causing several people dressed in yellow and black to scowl heavily at him. Meanwhile they finished breakfast, so they stood up and left the Great hall.

"Is he so bad?" Asked Rukia turning to her.

"Nah, they're just... _Jealous._" Ron snorted.

"Jealous? Hermione! Who would be jelaous because of such an... Such an.."

"Thanks, Ron, please tell us when you'll finish your sentence." She turned back and then almost knocked Ichigo off of his legs when she spun again around. "I almost forgot! Would you like to join to the S.P.E.W?"

''Uhh... What?'' Ron rolled his eyes and Harry facepalmed.

"Please, spare only their lives."

"But Ron, this is a great chance to...''

''Yeah, sure, sure...'' Hermione stiffened and ran upstairs by the excuse of "nig the badgages" - Rukia and Ichigo looked at each other in confusion.

''Hey, Ron, it's your friend...'' Said Harry. Madame Maxime entered the hall behind her students and organized them into a line. One by one, the Beauxbatons students stepped across the Age Line and dropped their slips of parchment into the blue-white flames. As each name entered the fire, it turned briefly red and emitted sparks.

"What d'you reckon'll happen to the ones who aren't chosen?" Ron muttered to Harry as the veela-girl dropped her parchment into the Goblet of Fire.

"We'll be around until the tournament ends." Answered Rukia. "After all, our headmasters are still here. And of course we'll study, too. Also, Urahara requested for us to visit your classes.''

''What? But that would be cheating!'' Shouted Ron.

"Dumbledore allowed us to do so, and if he does not think that it's cheating, then it is not. After all, you'll be the ones to visit our practicing, as a reward.''

When all the Beauxbatons students had submitted their names, Madame Maxime led them back out of the hall and out onto the grounds again.

"And where are you sleeping?" asked the redhead, moving toward the front doors and staring after them.

"We got two rooms inside the castle, since the Senkaimon is perfect for travelling and for an usually effective entry, but it has no rooms in it, and I don't really want to sleep in the Dangai."

"Dang-what?"

"Nevermind. As for the others, they probably sleeps in what they did come with." Answered Ichigo. Ron let out a silent "oh", when Hermione reappeared.

"And? What are your plans today?" Ichigo shrugged.

''Probably discovering the area."

"Don't you want to come with us to see Hagrid?" Ron had a strange expression on his face.

"Hermione... They are the students of the Shinou Academy..."

''And then what? They're not Death Eaters!''

''But they're still... Enemy! I don't even know why did we even talk to them! It's obvious that they're trying to get information out of us by pretending being friendly!'' Harry and Hermione sighed at once sometimes their friend could be such an idiot.

"Do not worry, Redhead. It was mere accident that we are here with you. We won't disturb you anymore so you can't consider that as spying, all right?" Said Rukia in an icy tone. She was sure that he does not know what is this Tournament about - other than competition. However she would swear on that other students - not only from Hogwarts - are thinking in the same way as him. The girl from the trio who was already outside the door shot them an apologetic look.

"And then what now?" Asked the Strawberry, changing back to Japanese. She shrugged.

"Let's discover the area."

Hours passed by and they managed to get lost not once but three times. The forest was huge and Rukia ran after a smaller white rabbit. It took Ichigo two hours to find her and the poor animal and another five to find a way _out_ of it - and without anyone or anything noticing it. After all, a Forbidden Forest usually is not forbidden without a reason, if you're in the wizard's world.

"You really had to ran after that rabbit... Did you?" Asked Ichigo, rubbing his shoulder where he managed to get a smaller cut from a strange creature with long claws - and it seemed like they contained some kind of weaker poison in them. Not deadly, but strong enough to make his left arm feel numb.

"It looked just like Chappy!"

"Sure. Good reason." He ran his hand through his hair in annoyance. Her - not love, because it's far over than that - about rabbits is going to kill him sometime. They just reached the door when somebody - or in this case somebodies - in fact rushed in before them. It was Professor Karkaroff, and what a surprise? The delegation of Durmstrang.

"Really, from the way they act you would think they have manners."

"Do _you_ have manners?" Asked Rukia teasing, after they sat down next to Renji and Hanatarou far enough from Potter boy's little group, then turned to _their_ redhead. "And where have you been? You've just disappeared after breakfast."

"Practicing. Kidou." He said with a blank expression on his face as he put some pasta onto his plate.

"How many times did you blow up yourself?"

"Who said...? Fine two times." Rukia grinned.

"You know, then you improved quite a lot - remember the time when you did not managed to get it right all the time? You even had to take extra lessons."

"Do not make me remember me that, please." Muttered Renji, making the girl chuckle. Ichigo looked at the table of the teachers. However Dumbledore seemed to be quite calm, Professor Karkaroff and Madame Maxime looked as tense and expectant as the students. Ludo Bagman was beaming and winking at some of them, Mr. Crouch, however, looked quite uninterested, almost bored. Urahara of course was his usual cheerful self, talking with the same witch who showed their rooms yesterday. As the golden plates returned to their original spotless state; there was a sharp upswing in the level of noise within the Hall, which died away almost instantly as head of Hogwarts got to his feet.

"Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision. I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions' names are called, I would ask them please to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber" —he indicated the door behind the staff table— "where they will be receiving their first instructions."

He took out his wand and gave a great sweeping wave with it; at once, all the candles except those inside the carved pumpkins were extinguished, plunging them into a state of semidarkness. The Goblet of Fire now shone more brightly than anything in the whole Hall, the sparkling bright, blue-whiteness of the flames almost painful on the eyes. Everyone watched, waiting... A few people kept checking their watches... Rukia sighed. People like to play with other's mind, do they?

The flames inside the goblet turned suddenly red and sparks began to fly from it. Next moment, a tongue of flame shot into the air, a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it—the whole room gasped.

Dumbledore caught the piece of parchment and held it at arm's length, so that he could read it by the light of the flames, which had turned back to blue-white.

"The champion for Durmstrang," he read, in a strong, clear voice, "will be Viktor Krum."

"No surprises there!" they heard Ron yell even through a storm of applause and cheering swept the Hall. They saw Viktor Krum rise from the Slytherin table and slouch up toward Dumbledore; he turned right, walked along the staff table, and disappeared through the door into the next chamber.

"Bravo, Viktor!"

The clapping and chatting died down. Now everyone's attention was focused again on the goblet, which, seconds later, turned red once more. A second piece of parchment shot out of it, propelled by the flames.

"The champion for Beauxbatons is Fleur Delacour!" The girl who so resembled a veela got gracefully to her feet, shook back her sheet of silvery blonde hair, and swept up between the blue-bronze and yellow-black tables. After she just disappeared the fire changed color again. Ichigo's stomach jumped. He had a very, _very_ bad feeling.

"The champion for Shinou Academy is Ichigo Kurosaki!" He really wanted his head make contact with the table, but somehow he managed to resist the urge. After all he was the one to throw his name in - not like he had any other chance with Hat 'n' Clogs standing right behind him. He stood up with a sigh and left the Great Hall.

Friendly fire was burning inside the fireplace. Without the flames it would be probably colder in there than at the Northern pole. He looked around. He could feel the gaze of the portraits. Krum, hunched-up and brooding, was leaning against the mantelpiece, slightly apart from Fleur who was standing in front of the fireplace.

''Umm... Hi?'' He asked, unsure about the whole situation. The girl nodded, but Krum - whose scowl probably was even deeper than his own - not even seemed to notice his presence. He shrugged. He heard the door open - the last champion joined them. He also had a slight smile on his face, however he did not say a word just went over next to Fleur. Ichigo heard few of the portraits chuckle. He frowned. What was just that now? The spiritual pressure in the Great Pressure spiked for a moment and then started swirling uncontronallably. Even though he usually sucked sensing reiatsu, he couldn't be wrong with this mass of it. A fifth person stepped into the room. A very confused and uncertain looking boy.

"What is it?" Asked Fleur. "Do zey want us back in ze Hall?"

"What're you doing here?" Asked Ichigo Harry. He just shook his head. It was like he is under a shock. There was a sound of scurrying feet behind them, and Ludo Bagman entered. He took Harry by the arm and led him forward.

"Extraordinary!" he muttered, squeezing the boy's arm. "Absolutely extraordinary! Gentlemen... lady," he added, approaching the fireside and addressing the other four. "May I introduce—incredible though it may seem—the fifth Triwizard champion?"

Viktor Krum straightened up. His surly face darkened as he surveyed Harry. The one whose name he still did not know looked from Bagman to Harry and back again as though sure he must have misheard what Bagman had said. Fleur Delacour, however, tossed her hair, smiling, and said, "Oh, vairy funny joke, Meester Bagman."

"Joke? No, no, not at all! Harry's name just came out of the Goblet of Fire!"

Krum's thick eyebrows contracted slightly while his own almost reached the beginning line of his hair. Now it was Fleur's time to frown while Boy Number Three was still looking politely bewildered.

"But evidently zair 'as been a mistake," she said contemptuously to Bagman. "'E cannot compete. 'E is too young.'

'Well... it is amazing, but, as you know, the age restriction was only imposed this year as an extra safety measure. And as his name's come out of the goblet... I mean, I don't think there can be any ducking out at this stage... It's down in the rules, you're obliged... Harry will just have to do the best he—"

The door behind them opened again, and a large group of people came in: Professor Dumbledore, followed closely by Mr. Crouch, Professor Karkaroff, who shot the orangehead an angry look, Madame Maxime, two other teachers of Hogwarts, and the headmaster of his own academy. Though unlike the others who only seemed to be tensed and angry, he had en expression like no one else - he seemed once to be serious and... Probably happy? They heard the buzzing of the hundreds of students on the other side of the wall, before one of the professors closed the door.

"Madame Maxime!" said Fleur at once, striding over to her headmistress. "Zey are saying zat zis little boy is to compete also!"

Ichigo couldn't help but grin when he felt the boy's reiatsu rise in anger.

Madame Maxime had drawn herself up to her full, and considerable, height. The top of her handsome head brushed the candle-filled chandelier, and her gigantic black-satin bosom swelled.

"What is ze meaning of zis, Dumbly-dorr?" she said imperiously.

"I'd rather like to know that myself, Dumbledore. Two Hogwarts champions? I don't remember anyone telling me the host school is allowed two champions—or have I not read the rules carefully enough?" Karkaroff was wearing a steely smile, and his blue eyes were like chips of ice. He gave a short and nasty laugh.

"C'est impossible. 'Ogwarts cannot 'ave two champions. It is most injust.''

"We were under the impression that your Age Line would keep out younger contestants, Dumbledore," said Karkaroff, his steely smile still in place, though his eyes were colder than ever. "Otherwise, we would, of course, have brought along a wider selection of candidates from our own schools."

"It's no one's fault but Potter's, Karkaroff," said a man with greasy looking - and that's possible that it was grease - softly. His black eyes were alight with malice. "Don't go blaming Dumbledore for Potter's determination to break rules. He has been crossing lines ever since he arrived here—"

"Thank you, Severus. Did you put your name into the Goblet of Fire, Harry?" asked the headmaster of Hogwarts asked calmly.

"No."

'Did you ask an older student to put it into the Goblet of Fire for you?'

"No.''

"Ah, but of course 'e is lying!" cried Madame Maxime.

"He does not. And even if he would there is no thing we can do from now." said Urahara.

"Your proof?"

"Oh, dear Madame, I know very well when does one lie." The woman snorted in disbelief.

"And he could not have crossed the Age Line. I am sure we are all agreed on that—" said the strict looking professor, but the French headmistress only shrugged.

"Dumbly-dorr must 'ave made a mistake wiz ze line."

"It is possible, of course," said Dumbledore politely.

"Dumbledore, you know perfectly well you did not make a mistake! Really, what nonsense! Harry could not have crossed the line himself, and as Professor Dumbledore believes that he did not persuade an older student to do it for him, I'm sure that should be good enough for everybody else!" Said the woman while she shot a very angry look at Professor Greasy. Ichigo felt like he could even enjoy the show if he would not be a part of it.

"Mr. Crouch... Mr. Bagman," said Karkaroff, his voice unctuous once more, "you are our—er—objective judges. Surely you will agree that this is most irregular?"

Bagman wiped his round, boyish face with his handkerchief and looked at Mr. Crouch, who was standing outside the circle of the firelight, his face half hidden in shadow. He looked slightly eerie, the half darkness making him look much older, giving him an almost skull-like appearance. When he spoke, however, it was in his usual curt voice.

"We must follow the rules, and the rules state clearly that those people whose names come out of the Goblet of Fire are bound to compete in the tournament."

"Well, Barty knows the rule book back to front." said Bagman.

"I insist upon resubmitting the names of the rest of my students. You will set up the Goblet of Fire once more, and we will continue adding names until each school has two champions. It's only fair, Dumbledore."

"That's simply impossible, Karkaroff. It's fire just gone out and it won't reignite until the start of the next tournament, if I'm right." Shook his head Kisuke.

"In which Durmstrang will most certainly not be competing!" exploded Karkaroff. "After all our meetings and negotiations and compromises, I little expected something of this nature to occur! I have half a mind to leave now!"

"Empty threat, Karkaroff," growled a voice from near the door. "You can't leave your champion now. He's got to compete. They've all got to compete. Binding magical contract, like Dumbledore said. Convenient, eh?" Ichigo recognized the man who just save his head yesterday. In any other way it would be most probably teared off by Karkaroff.

"Convenient? I'm afraid I don't understand you, Moody."

"Don't you?" said the man named Moody quietly. "It's very simple, Karkaroff. Someone put Potter's name in that goblet knowing he'd have to compete if it came out."

"Evidently, someone 'oo wished to give 'Ogwarts two bites at ze apple!" said Madame Maxime.

"I quite agree, Madame Maxime," said Karkaroff, bowing to her. "I shall be lodging complaints with the Ministry of Magic and the International Confederation of Wizards—"

"If anyone's got reason to complain, it's Potter," growled Moody, "but... funny thing... I don't hear him saying a word..."

"Why should 'e complain?" burst out Fleur Delacour, stamping her foot. "E 'as ze chance to compete, 'asn't 'e? We 'ave all been 'oping to be chosen for weeks and weeks! Ze honor for our schools! A thousand Galleons in prize money—zis is a chance many would die for!"

"Maybe someone's hoping Potter is going to die for it," said Moody and Ichigo once. He shivered as the man looked at him with his magic eyes.

An extremely tense silence followed these words. Ludo Bagman, who was looking very anxious indeed, bounced nervously up and down on his feet and said, "Moody, old man... And oh, my son, what a thing to say!"

"I'm not sure that I'm your son by any chance. At least I hope so." Growled Ichigo. Bagman shut his mouth. He saw as the corners of the female teacher"s lips twitched.

"We all know Professor Moody considers the morning wasted if he hasn't discovered six plots to murder him before lunchtime. And it seems like one of our dear champions like this way of thinking too.

"Imagining things, am I?" growled Moody. "Seeing things, eh? It was a skilled witch or wizard who put the boy's name in that goblet..."

"Ah, what evidence is zere of zat?" said Madame Maxime, throwing up her huge hands.

"Because they hoodwinked a very powerful magical object! It would have needed an exceptionally strong Confundus Charm to bamboozle that goblet into forgetting that however now four schools compete in the tournament there is no an other one... So I'm guessing they submitted Potter's name under that very fifth school, to make sure he was the only one in his category..."

"You seem to have given this a great deal of thought, Moody," said Karkaroff coldly, "and a very ingenious theory it is—though of course, I heard you recently got it into your head that one of your birthday presents contained a cunningly disguised basilisk egg, and smashed it to pieces before realizing it was a carriage clock. So you'll understand if we don't take you entirely seriously..."

"There are those who'll turn innocent occasions to their advantage. It's my job to think the way Dark wizards do, Karkaroff—as you ought to remember...

"Alastor!" said Dumbledore warningly. Moody fell silent, though still surveying Karkaroff with satisfaction whose face was burning.

"How this situation arose, we do not know," said Dumbledore, speaking to everyone gathered in the room. "It seems to me, however, that we have no choice but to accept it. Both Cedric and Harry have been chosen to compete in the Tournament. This, therefore, they will do..."

"Ah, but Dumbly-dorr—"

"My dear Madame Maxime, if you have an alternative, I would be delighted to hear it."

Dumbledore waited, but Madame Maxime did not speak, she merely glared. She wasn't the only one either. Professor Greasy looked furious; Karkaroff livid; Urahara and Bagman, however, looked rather excited, Ichigo's sentences already forgotten.

"Well, shall we crack on, then?" he said, rubbing his hands together and smiling around the room. "Got to give our champions their instructions, haven't we? Barty, want to do the honors?"

Mr. Crouch seemed to come out of a deep reverie.

"Yes. Instructions. Yes... the first task..."

He moved forward into the firelight. Close up, he looked ill. There were dark shadows beneath his eyes and a thin, papery look about his wrinkled skin.

"The first task is designed to test your daring, so we are not going to be telling you what it is. Courage in the face of the unknown is an important quality in a wizard... very important.

The first task will take place on November the twenty-fourth, in front of the other students and the panel of judges. The champions are not permitted to ask for or accept help of any kind from their teachers to complete the tasks in the tournament. The champions will face the first challenge armed only with their wands. This concerns the Japanese champion, too." He looked at Ichigo. "They will receive information about the second task when the first is over. Owing to the demanding and time-consuming nature of the tournament, the champions are exempted from end-of-year tests."

Mr. Crouch turned to look at Dumbledore.

"I think that's all, is it, Albus?"

"I think so." said Dumbledore, who was looking at Mr. Crouch with mild concern. "Are you sure you wouldn't like to stay at Hogwarts tonight, Barty?"

"No, Dumbledore, I must get back to the Ministry. It is a very busy, very difficult time at the moment... I've left young Weatherby in charge... Very enthusiastic... a little overenthusiastic, if truth be told..."

"You'll come and have a drink before you go, at least?"

"Come on, Barry, I'm staying!" said Bagman brightly. "It's all happening at Hogwarts now, you know, much more exciting here than at the office!"

"I think not, Ludo."

"Professor Karkaroff—Madame Maxime—a nightcap?" said Dumbledore.

But Madame Maxime had already put her arm around Fleur's shoulders and was leading her swiftly out of the room. They could hear them both talking very fast in French as they went off into the Great Hall. Karkaroff beckoned to Krum, and they, too, exited, though in silence. Urahara smiled again.

"I however would take the chance. Ichigo can you find our rooms alone too, right?'' He nodded and then take a last look at the ones who were still in before he stepped out into the empty Great Hall.

-end-of-chapter-

_Ohh, hi there again! :D First of all I want to thank everyone who has reviewed or favourited this story. And I have to apologize because of this something which I dare to call a chapter. xD Really, I was usually tired or annoyed by my mother to clean up my room/learn. And I'm working on a closplay, too, so I was pretty much unfocused. Lesson learned, do not write if you do not even watch what are you writing! :D_

_About characters talking in Japanese - I will not use symbols as most of the writers do, but I usually will say when one does. And forgive me that I did not make Kisuke talk more - I can't get his personality right. (Why, you can the others?) Soo... Probably that's all for now. _


	3. Weighing of the wands

Her hand tightened around Sode no Shirayuki, who was still in her wand form. It was nice to feel the familiar cold under her palm. Ichigo this time wasn't going easy on her. She almost smiled. Thinking about there was a time when _she_ mopped the floor with _him_ thanks to her talents with wandless magic. Rukia saw as something black flashed next to her.

"Tsugi no mai, Hakuren!'' She called out. Her - in fact the entire class' - twelwe audience gasped as huge amount of snow shot out of the end of her zanpakuto. But if they'd know what are zanpakutous capable of in released state... That's why she hated to use these thechniques in this shape - however it might look fascinating and powerful, in unsealed form they're even stronger and awesome.

Of course, Ichigo easely avoided her attack, and rewarded with a stronger Chinese origined spell which can cause pretty much... Damage if it hits the target directly. So, now it was her time to jump. Curses, jinxes and hexes followed each other when Rukia held her hand up in defeat. Ichigo grinned.

"Well done, Ichigo, Rukia," jumped Urahara next to them. "Then, the next pair is... Oh." He sounded quite sad when the bell rang. However most of the second years of Hogwarts and a few from their own school seemed to be relived to return into the warmth of the castle. After all to sit outside in two celsiuses in November... Cannot be considered as comfortable. She snickered. Goodness. If they'd know how many times did they have to practice back in Japan in the minuses outside without anything to keep you warm except for the training clothes... The good old days...

"Hey, Rukia, are you in there?" Asked Ichigo as he waved his hand in front of her face. "I don't wanna be late from lunch, you know."

"Seriously, you're almost worse then Renji. He has a bottomless stomach, though yours is only _almost_ bottomless."

"I heard that!" Yelled the redhead.

"Face the fact Renji, what she says is true." Put Ikkaku his hand onto his shoulder.

"At least I'm not bald!"

"Whaaat did youuu saaay?"

"Oh, come on, you two. Starting a fight fueled by anger is not beautiful at all." Said Yumichika behind them. Ichigo rolled his eyes. Finally they reached the Great Hall. As they sat down to the Gryffindor's table - they finally found it's name out - he got numerous glares filled with hatred. Well, it wasn't that surprising, after all he was the champion of an other school, not theirs.

"So, let me get this straight. They let that Potter kid take part in this Tournament, however he is under age? Are they nuts?'' Ichigo sighed. She was talking about it for almost a week now.  
>''For the last time Rukia - yes they let him. As for your second question, I don't know, but that Bangman probably."<p>

"Bagman."

"Whatever. Anyway, it's their problem, not mine."

"That's exactly what I'm talking about! That kid will survive the first task, if he's lucky. And then they can write into their pretty books "another Tournament with dead champion"."

"They said that these tasks won't be as hard as the old ones were."  
>"Yeah. Not. Sure. How many times did they said that before? Stop playing with that piece of meat, Renji."<p>

"Yes, ma'am," growled he. "Anyway, will you come with me to practice Sokatsui?"  
>"You think that's a good idea? You'll blow up not only yourself, but the castle, too."<p>

"At least I do not suck at zanjutsu."

"At least I can use kidou properly."

"Well, at least I'm..." He could not finish his sentence, because their neighbour, Ron nearly shouted at them.

"Could you stop talking in Japanese, or better yet, simply shut up?" One of the twins who sat next to him gave him a look.

"Hey, calm down, bro."

"Yeah, it's not like people want to have lunch in peace, right?" Joined the other one, too.

"So just let them fight, okay?"

"Will you two just..."

"Shut up, too?" Asked the one who sat next to Renji. "Oh, Ronny-monny..."

"I think there is something wrong with your head."

"After all, only our mother can order ask to eat in silence.''

''And you're not our mother, aren't you?''

''Or is he?'' Twin No.:1 looked at Twin No.:2 with fake worried expression. Their brother snorted, but said nothing. Suddenly a hand touched Ichigo's shoulder. It was Urahara.

"May I have a word with you, Kurosaki - kun?" He asked in Japanese.

"Of course."

"You should come up to room 245 by half past one. We'll have the weighing of the wands. And... Ahh. Nevermind." He hid his smile behind his well-known fan.

"To not mind something first I should know what I should not mind. Tell me, Urahara!"

"Oh, my... Well, they have invited a reporter and a photographer."

"For what?"

"Really, Ichigo. Why do people usually invite photographers?" Rukia interrupted.

"Uhh.. No way."

"Yeah, that's the situation. So, at half past one in 245!" Said Urahara as he waved good bye and joined to Dumbledore. Ichigo looked at the green-silver table - Slytherin's? - and saw a quite pale Krum after Karkaroff left the table. He had a very good suspicion why was he so white. He raised an eyebrow and almost smirked. People would think that somebody so famous would get used to the light of flashes and reporters.

Time passed by. Well, in fact jumped by. Once he was cleaning up after Renji the shattered glasses - because when his hadou touched the wooden target instead of blowing it up it transformed into glasses - and in the next moment he was in the castle, lost. Unfortunately, it wasn't easier to search after Urahara's reiatsu because of two reasons - for one, he still sucked at it, and two, plenty of the teachers and some students also had quite high spiritual pressure. He hissed as some kind of idiot ghost managed to threw a book onto his head. After he dealt with him (konsou was forbidden, so that damned spirit got away with a Bakudou No.:4) and put him into a nice, little chamber he heard somebody yell behind the next door.

"I have NOT got tears in my eyes!" He opened the wooden thing which revealed the infamous Harry Potter with anger flaming in his eyes and a strange blonde woman.

"Excuse me. Probably I interrupted you two?"

"Oh, yes my dear, you just did. You didn't know that normal people knock before stepping into somewhere?"

"Normal people neither hide in a broom cupboard, either."

"You... Dumbledore!" she cried out. "How are you? I hope you saw my piece over the summer about the International Confederation of Wizards' Conference?"

"Enchantingly nasty," said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling. "I particularly enjoyed your description of me as an obsolete dingbat." Ichigo's mouth fell open and he saw as Harry's eyes widened slightly. She did what?

"I was just making the point that some of your ideas are a little old-fashioned, Dumbhedore, and that many wizards in the street—"

"I will be delighted to hear the reasoning behind the rudeness, Rita, but I'm afraid we will have to discuss the matter later. The Weighing of the Wands is about to start, and it cannot take place if one of our champions is hidden in a broom cupboard and the other one is about to start a fight with our dear reporter." Harry seemed to be more than happy to get away from the woman. In the room other champions were sitting in chairs near the door, and both of them sat down quickly, looking up at the velvet-covered table, where five of the six judges were now sitting — Professor Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, Mr. Crouch, Professor Urahara and Ludo Bagman.

"May I introduce Mr. Ollivander?" said Dumbledore, taking his place at the judges' table and talking to the champions. "He will be checking your wands to ensure that they are in good condition before the tournament."

Ichigo followed Harry's gaze and saw an old wizard with large, pale eyes standing quietly by the window. He didn't know why but the man gave him chills. And how that comes that no matter how bad he is at it, he cannot feel the slightest signs of spiritual energy in him?

"Mademoiselle Delacour, could we have you first, please?" said Mr. Ollivander, stepping into the empty space in the middle of the room.

Fleur Delacour swept over to Mr. Olhivander and handed him her wand.

"Hmm..." He twirled the wand between his long fingers like a baton and it emitted a number of pink and gold sparks. Then he held it chose to his eyes and examined it carefully. "Yes, nine and a half inches... inflexible.. rosewood... and containing... dear me..."

"An 'air from ze 'ead of a veela. One of my grandmuzzer's."

"Yes," said Mr. Ollivander, "yes, I've never used veela hair myself, of course. I find it makes for rather temperamental wands... however, to each his own, and if this suits you.."

Mr. Ollivander ran his fingers along the wand, apparently checking for scratches or bumps; then he muttered, "Orchideous!" and a bunch of flowers burst from the wand tip.

"Very well, very well, it's in fine working order," said Mr. Ollivander, scooping up the flowers and handing them to Fleur with her wand. "Mr. Diggory, you next."

Fleur glided back to her seat, smiling at Cedric as he passed her.

"Ah, now, this is one of mine, isn't it? Yes, I remember it well. Containing a single hair from the tail of a particularly fine male unicorn... must have been seventeen hands; nearly gored me with his horn after I plucked his tail. Twelve and a quarter inches... ash... pleasantly springy. It's in fine condition... You treat it regularly?"

"Polished it last night," said Cedric, grinning. Ichigo gave Harry a look when he saw sparks fly out of the end of his wand as he rubbed it. Fleur did the same.

Mr. Ollivander sent a stream of silver smoke rings across the room from the tip of Cedric's wand, pronounced himself satisfied, and then said, "Mr. Kurosaki, would you be so kind?"

Ichigo stood up and almost grinned. Zangetsu was not too fond of the idea of even being only touched by somebody else. Or Rukia. Who knows why her.

"May I?" Ichigo nodded and gave his "wand" to him. He did not even hold it for a second when he yelled in pain and almost dropped it. The orangehead's eyes widened and the judges jumped up. Worry and shock shone in all of their eyes - except for Karkaroff's who had shock and excitement in them. Urahara's gaze flashed onto him and then back to the gasping wandmaker. He heard Zangetsu shouting in the back of his mind and Rita's quill continued writing at a greater speed. Finally Mr. Ollivander was able to straighten himself and continued examining the wand.

"Metal... Yet it isn't. No core at all. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you a shinigami, Mr. Kurosaki?"

"No. Not yet." He saw as Cedric and Fleur looked at each other with a puzzled look. The old wandmaker nodded.

"Yes, yes. Quite an aggressive soul, that one. I think you better be careful with it." He murmured something, turned a chair into a white dog and then back to chair, he gave the wand back to Ichigo, who was amazed. Zangetsu never ever let anybody else but him do magic with him. By the way...

"(Hey, old man, what was that?)"

"(_He decided to scare him a bit.)_" Ichigo scowled. Great. Meanwhile Mr. Ollivander was finished with Krum and called Harry out.

"Aaaah, yes. Yes, yes, yes. How well I remember." Was it only him, or the Potter boy seemed to be tense a bit?

Mr. Ollivander spent much longer examining Harry's wand than anyone else's. Eventually, however, he made a fountain of wine shoot out of it, and handed it back to him, announcing that it was still in perfect condition.

"Thank you all," said Dumbledore, standing up at the judges' table. "You may go back to your lessons now—or perhaps it would be quicker just to go down to dinner, as they are about to end—"

They all got up to go, but a man with a black camera jumped up and cleared his throat. Krum growled.

"Photos, Dumbledore, photos!" cried Bagman excitedly. "All the judges and champions, what do you think, Rita?"

"Er—yes, let's do those first. And then perhaps some individual shots." She said as she gave looks to the youngest champion.

The photographs took a long time. Madame Maxime cast everyone else into shadow wherever she stood, and the photographer couldn't stand far enough back to get her into the frame; eventually she had to sit while everyone else stood around her. Karkaroff kept twirling his goatee around his finger to give it an extra curl; Krum, skulked, half-hidden, at the back of the group. So Ichigo was right. The photographer seemed keenest to get Fleur at the front, but the reporter kept hurrying forward and dragging Harry into greater prominence and pushed the Japanese champion into the background, next to the other judges. Then she insisted on separate shots of all the champions. At last, they were free to go.

"How was the weighing?" Asked Rukia when he sat down next to her.

"I think 'horrible' is not a strong word enough."

"Was it that bad?"

"No, I'm just joking. Of course it was!" He sighed. "Well, probably it wouldn't be if that blonde woman wasn't there. She couldn't stand to not give any comments."

"Well, that what reporters do."

"I don't care." Rukia giggled.

-end-of-chapter-

_It's me again! Nothing much to say - I'm working on a Sode no Shirayuki cosplay... And my grammar not really improved yet. Though I hope that you could enjoy at least some parts of this chapter._


	4. Class visiting

"His wand hurt Mr. Ollivander when he touched it?" asked Hermione. Harry nodded.

"Yeah. It was quite strange. It was like the wand was alive, has a mind and refuses to be touched by him."

"Well, it _is_ alive." The black haired boy's mouth fell.

"What?"

"Did he not say it to you too, when you bought yours? The wand chooses the wielder and not the wielder the wand. Unfortunately, I don't know what kind of magic they use to do that..."

"You mean that..."

"They can feel and think. They share the pain of their owners. I also read that a long time ago, even before Hogwarts was founded, people could manifest the spirit of their wands after they found out its name. But for some reason, later on they started to think about them as tools, not actual partners, just like with the house elves. The spirits however help their owners, they kept their names secret, though together they could become stronger. And now all of this is completely forgotten. I tried to find out the name of my wand, but nothing was written about it in the books I read, and everybody who ever knew how to do it are most likely all dead," she finished sadly.

"They could manifest the spirits of their wand and they even had names..." echoed Harry. "Are you sure about this?"

"Of course I am. The spirits became whole after they found their wielder. They got their own name and shape which could be anything from an ant to a human. It all depended on the wielder. But they already had their personality which changed only slightly afterwards."

"So you say that these... They are alive?" He pulled out his wand.

"Yep. Pretty much. I wonder what my spirit is shaped as."

"Probably a talking book," muttered Harry under his breath. Hermione looked at him.

"Did you say something?"

"No." He sighed and shot a glare towards Ron who laughed a little too loudly at a joke Neville told him. "What class do we have now?"

"Defense Against Dark Arts. Listen, Harry..."

"Stop."

"What? Why?"

"Because I know what you want to say. And until he does realizes he's wrong and asks me to forgive him, I won't do so, either." Hermione shrugged.

"Whatever. I think we better go."

"Yeah, probably." On their way to the classroom, he wondered about the possibility of a spirit living in his wand. Even the idea of it seemed to be... Absurd. But the way Mr. Ollivander talked about them... He shook his head. He probably won't have enough time to find anything out about these spirits other than what Hermione had said. He suddenly bumped into somebody tall and.. Orange?

"Oh, hey. What are you doing here?" he asked Ichigo. The other one shrugged.

"Visiting classes. Actually, I didn't really want to - that Moody guy gives me creeps. He's your DADA teacher, right?"

"Yes, and he is a very good teacher, even if his way of teaching is... Unusual."

"Don't listen to him. Sometimes he doesn't know when to shut up," said Rukia.

"Whose classes did you visit already?" Asked Hermione.

"Let's see... There was Professor Sprout, Flickering-"

"Flitwick."

"McGonagall and Snape. I hate to admit, though he is not the kindest one, he's a good teacher."

"Exactly! You see, Harry?"

"Hermione, I've never said he's a bad teacher. I only said that he hates me as much as Ron hates spiders."

"That guy is afraid of spiders?" asked (if they remembered rightly) Renji, amused.

"Long story. Anyway, I think we should go into the classroom." The place seemed extremely crowded with the Japanese students there as well, so they sat in the few remaining places and waited. When Moody entered the classroom everybody went silent.

"Put those away, and follow me," he told them. "Today we have our lesson on the field."

"But it's, like, minus ten outside!" said Lavander, but immediately regretted it. Moody turned his magical eye towards her and had a strange expression on his face.

"Does that bother you, Miss Brown? You'll never know when you have to defend yourself; the last thing you should be worrying about is the temperature."

"I am sorry..." mumbled the girl.

"Right then, anybody else with _serious_ problems and not about how cold is it outside?" The entire class - plus the Japanese - shook their head. The man grinned.

'If it is only minus ten,' Harry thought. 'Than I am a muggle.' Hermione fortunately put some kind of spell on both of them which kept them warm - at least warmer than the others. The Shinou Academy students, however, did not appear to have the same problems.

"Well, then," Moody started. "Today we'll be duelling."

"Duelling? With them? They know much more than we do! Are you mad?" somebody shouted. Harry couldn't really bring himself to be angry at him, remembering Lockhart's duelling course.

"Yeah, some people think so. And I ensure you that Professor Dumbledore agreed on it, if all of us will be... _Careful_. So, please find yourself a partner and line up before me. Oh, no Mr. Potter, you don't. Your opponent will be Mr. Kurosaki, while Miss Granger will duel with Miss Kuchiki." Their mouths fell open. How on the earth did he know Rukia's name?

"Right then! I'll put up shields between the pairs, so they can't hit each other with spells, only their partner. Remember not to use any deadly curse or anything that can cause serious injuries which will not heal within a week. You are free to use any other curse, hex or jinx. Understood? Then stand back, away from each other!"

"This is what I call visiting classes," Ichigo murmured in Rukia's ear. "Duelling!"

She smiled, but said nothing as she faced her opponent. She felt the invisible shields appear, cutting out every noise but those that she and Granger made.

"Do you want to start?" she asked her.

"After you."

"Well, then... _Hareges_!" Rukia shouted. The other girl blocked it with another spell and the duelling began.

Harry looked up at his opponent. The scowl on Ichigo's face became deeper, if it's even possible. They both raised their wands. Black energy swirled in the air, pushing Harry to the ground. He gasped. It felt like a herd of elephants had ran on top of him.

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah. Of course."

"Hell you are. Maybe I should start with a lower level spell next time..." he said as he helped the black-haired boy up.

"Probably."

"Ready?"

"Yes." Harry felt more and more desperate as time passed by. Ichigo beat him every time except for one, when the orange-headed boy didn't pay attention for a second. He'll be in a serious trouble if the other champions know half as much as he does. In the end he had several bruises over his body, while the Kurosaki had only one cut on his face, thanks to the second time when he dropped his guard down.

"Time's up!" they heard Moody shout. "Go back to the classroom and grab your things!"

"Hey. You were good." He turned his head to Ichigo.

"Don't lie. You would wipe the floor with me, if you'd have to." He said.

"Well... Yeah, but I'm older than you are, and I also had good teachers. Hermione told Rukia about that Lockhart guy - with those kinds of teachers, we wouldn't be half as good as we are."

"I suppose... Hermione! What on the earth happened to you!" They shouted in unison (although Ichigo called Rukia's name) as they saw the two girls covered in some kind of strange liquid.

"Chhanh't tharlk. Hrsorrygh." She _"_answered_"_. The orange-head turned to the other girl, whose hair seemed to be burned.

"What have you done to each other?"

"She knows some nasty spells, so I didn't hold back much, either. But I see that you got hit, too."

"That's not important, but you two look like you just got back from hell. Are you crazy?"

"Well, we had to duel, so we duelled. Is that a problem?"

"Yes, it is!" Ichigo shouted. Hermione raised an eyebrow.

"Youhhr twro tahlk like yourre an ord mharried choupre." The two shouted immediately.

"What? We do not! Take that one back!" The girl just smiled and pointed at her throat, which meant that she cannot say more.

"I thought they'd be much more colder towards us considering that you're the champion of the 'enemy'," said Hermione once she could speak again.

"Yeah. But I suppose they thought the same."

"Well, there were some people who tried to curse Ichigo. I saw it."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Rukia turned them into bunnies afterwards until they swore that they wouldn't do it again and would never speak about what happened to them."

"How could they swear if they couldn't talk?" Wondered Harry.

"They had to raise their front right paws. Anyway, it was an interesting day."

"Yeah... Interesting for sure."

-end-of-chapter-

_**Hareges** - comes from the Japanese word, hage, which means bald. Find out what was Rukia's goal with it. :D And sorry about the last paragraph! I wrote all of it at once and got kinda sleep_y... _If you're wondering why did they tried to curse Ichigo, well, here is the reason: they couldn't stand that the champion of an other school stays at the castle with them and visiting their lessons. (However Hogwarts students do the same.) They thought that they're cheating, just as Ron did._

_Also thanks for AllieOutOfWonderland for beta-ing(? I don't know how is it written in the right way. xD) the chapter. :) However I rewrote some things, those were of course changed. But mostly unimportant things. _


	5. Dragons

Re-uploaded chapter

The day of the first trial came way too soon, in Ichigo's opinion. None of them could guess what task he will have, unlike the others, if their suspicions were correct. Unforunately while Urahara was usually friendly, if it came to something like this, he couldn't be fooled with any trick.

"I just hope that they won't give you anything too hard." Ichigo scowled at the girl's sentence.

"Are you joking Rukia? The whole point of this to be hard."

"True... But..."

"Kurosaki-san, it's time to go!" yelled Kisuke.

"Okay!" he shouted back and turned, but something pulled his kimono's sleeve. Rukia looked up at him with a strange expression on her face.

"Listen, just... Don't die, okay?"

"Can't. Sorry." The girl grinned.

"I know." He turned again, just to bump into someone else. A certain red haired "someone else".

"Uhh... Sorry, I just... Wanted to wish you good luck."

"Ehh, Renji? What did you say?"

"I said good luck, dammit! Now hurry, disappear!" Renji waved him away.

-.-.-

Fleur, Cedric and Krum were already there when he arrived, along with Bagman (who seemed to be a little bit _t_o_o_ cheerful despite the champions being about to come face to face with death). While everybody else in the tent was nervous and pale, he was jumping around like a five years old kid at Christmas. He even looked like one. A fat, ugly, overgrown kid in stupid robes. Finally, Potter arrived, too.

"Harry! Good-o!" said the man happily, looking around at him. "Come in, come in, make yourself at home!"

"_Home__,__ right__,_" thought Ichigo. "M_ore like __Purgatory__._"

The others expressions seemed to mirror his own thoughts.

"Well, now we're all here—time to fill you in! When the audience has assembled, I'm going to be offering each of you this bag" - he held up a small sack of purple silk and shook it at them - "from which you will each select a small model of the thing you are about to face! There are different... Er... varieties, you see. And I have to tell you something else too... ah, yes... Your task is to collect the golden egg!"

Cedric had nodded once, to show that he understood Bagman's words, Harry's eyes widened slightly, but Fleur Delacour and Krum hadn't reacted at all.

In no time at all, hundreds upon hundreds of pairs of feet could be heard passing the tent, their owners talking excitedly, laughing, joking, some of them with fluctuating reiatsu. It seemed like not only the champions were worried. Harry turned pale, when Bagman opened the neck of the purple silk sack.

"Ladies first," he said, offering it to Fleur.

She put her shaking hand inside the bag and drew out a tiny, perfect model of a dragon - a Welsh Green, Ichigo guessed from the color of the animal. It had the number two around its neck, while Krum pulled out a scarlet Chinese Fireball, which was number four. He didn't even blink, just sat back down and stared at the ground.

It was now his turn. The little statues felt strange – both hot and cold at the same time. He chose one, pulled his hand out, then yelped. A Northern Narrowback, with the number one. This kind of dragon was not known for it's patience...

Cedric put his hand into the bag, and out came the bluish-gray Swedish Short-Snout, the number three tied around its neck. Ichigo almost hissed when he saw what did Harry got - a Hungarian Horntail. It seems like he does not have the worst luck in the universe, after all.

"Well, there you are!" said Bagman. "You have each pulled out the dragon you will face, and the numbers refer to the order in which you are to take on the dragons, do you see? Now, I'm going to have to leave you in a moment, because I'm commentating. Mr. Kurosaki, you're first, just go out into the enclosure when you hear a whistle, all right? Now... Harry... could I have a quick word? Outside?"

"Er... yes." Harry and Bagman was gone. Ichigo looked at his fellow champions - if it was possible, they seemed to be even paler.

A whistle blew.

He got up and left the tent, walked past several trees, and then through a gap in the enclosure fence. At the other end of the fence an enormous animal was leaning above her eggs in a defensive kind of way. As his eyes met with the red ones of the dragon's he could feel his mouth go dry. She would protect the eggs, even if it costed her life. They continued on examining each other. Ichigo heard as the crowd beside him started whispering and laughing. More than probably at him. He frowned. The reiatsu coming from the creature did not promise anything good...

The animal attacked first. He could only just avoid its tail sweeping above him - Ichigo was forced to jump back. He started running, and pulled Zangetsu out of his sleeves. The wand immediately turned into sword, and then he leaped to the air. Too bad that the rules forbade to use Bankai. Then it would be only the question of a swing with his sword. He tried to use Shunpo, only to find it that he was almost unable to. At least not at his usual speed. He almost slapped himself into the face, when he realised it; it was the massive reiatsu of the dragon that slowed him down that much. '_Damn...' _he thought. He had to get that egg somehow, which meant that he had to make the dragon move further from him. A blazing trail of fire roared dangously close to him, followed by a shower of venom. Nobody said that this dragon has venom! He had to retreat again and again. One time it almost managed to get him. He backed away then darted towards the eggs, after sending a Getsuga Tenshou towards the animal, distracting it. It was only by half a second that the huge, clawed paws almost tore his head off. He heard the audience gasp. He jumped away, landing on the earth, then put his hand in front of himself.

"_The Greatest One smiles as the sea of the sky soothes the burning land and reclaims it's __immeasurable__ territory. By all the power he beholds, he forces the flames of the third world back to their __kingdom__ and locks them for the eternity to burn each other! Lightning of heavens, nymphas of the Earth, listen, as they're screaming! _Bakudou No.: 99! Kin!" The creature gave out scream as the binding spell made her wings and paws unusable. He started running, now for his life, as the pissed off mother roared behind him.

Ichigo rushed towards the eggs. - - even the highest level spell won't last over ten seconds against something with that amount of reiatsu. He grabbed the golden egg just as the spell began to break. He started running, now for his life, as the pissed off mother roared behind him.

"Heey! I only took one egg, and it wasn't even yours!" Ichigo shouted over his shoulder, keeping an eye on the dragon.

"Damn!" he hissed, when he reached the end of the fence. She successfully managed to split him away from the gate...

A sharp pain stabbed into his shoulder and he almost dropped Zangetsu. Oh, how he hated anything that had poison right now... He sent another wave of energy towards the animal, and then rushed toward the exit, splitting through another wave of fire. He almost broke the gate as he ran out. Rukia was already waiting for him. A green light touched his shoulder, and he felt life coming back to the right side of his body.

"Fascinating!" yelled Bagman. "And now the marks!"

First it was Madame Maxime's turn - she rose her wand up which shot out an eight. Mr. Crouch gave him also eight - from Urahara, Dumbledore and Bagman he got nine - from Karkaroff six, though he was looking like he just choked on a lemon.

"I thought they wouldn't give you much because of your shoulder," commented Rukia.

"Gee, thanks. Do I have to remind you that I'm not the one the foreign headmasters hate the most because of breaking the rules?"

"Really? Did you take a look at Karkaroff?"

"Of course I did."

"There you are!" somebody yelled, then grabbed Ichigo by the shoulder. He shot a puzzled look at the woman.

"Excuse me?"

"There is no excuse for acting so foolishly! You're coming to the hospital tent with me, _right now_!"

"What?" But before he could struggle he was already pulled away from the girl.

"What did I miss?" he asked, sitting down and scowling few minutes later.

"Are you all right?"

"Of course I am. You've already done the bigger part of the job. She just gave me something that tasted awful to counter the poiseo. So?"

"Fleur. She was good and bad all at once. Her hypnosis worked on the dragon, and everything was fine, until it decided to snort. Her skirt caught on fire and she got minus points for that."

"I see." The wizards had already brought in the next dragon. They were only waiting for the next champion.

"Aaand... Cedric Diggory!" yelled Bagman as the pale boy appeared at the entrance. Ichigo wasn't sure that he was a better color when it was his turn. Cedric started running.

"What the hell is he doing?" he shouted. Some of the Hogwarts' students shot him angry looks.

"Attacking head on. Ichigo I know that you're not that much of a strategist, but even you should recognize..."

"Got it, but I'm also the living proof that that doesn't work very well most of the time."

"Ah, I think he understands that now, too," said Rukia in a cheerful tone as Digorry found himself close to a jet of flame - really, really close.

"Oooh, narrow miss there, very narrow..."

"Can't Bagman just shut up?" hissed the orange-head.

"It's his job, you know."

"He's taking risks, this one!" the man continued commentating.

"I think he still has something to learn from you."

"Thanks."

Finally Cedric realized that he wasn't going to make it with that strategy - he pointed his wand not at the dragon, but at a huge rock behind it. As the spell hit it, it transformed into a huge dog, the size of that half-human teacher's hut. The stone dog started to bark, successfully making the dragon concentrate on it. Diggory started running again - he was about a meter or so away from the nest when the dragon noticed the trick. The boy came close to being barbequed for the second time that day.

"Clever move - pity it didn't work!" shouted Ludo again. "What's happening? Does he have another plan?" he asked himself and the audience as the champion lifted his wand once again. He made a wide circular motion with it, and shouted something which was lost inamongst the howls of the beast. Stones lifted in the air and started moving between him and the dragon to form a wall of rock. With another wave they turned into metal. The shield just gave him enough time to grab the egg and start running for dear life as the furious mother broke through the barrier and started chasing him. It sort-of reminded Ichigo of his own fight with the Narrowback. The whole audience hissed together as the boy dissappeared in a cloud of fire - just to reappear mostly undamaged a few seconds later.

"Clever. He cooled down the flames, even if he was a second late, I see," said Rukia to the Shinou Academy's champion. Cedric made it outside of the fence then - just to be immediately attacked by the healer. The judges were fair with him, too; in the end he got the same scores as Ichigo.

Krum was _more_ than pathetic. True, his spell did what it was supposed to do, but the dragon smashed half of the eggs, and yet he got more than either he, Diggory or Fleur (from what Rukia said) would deserve, thanks to Karkaroff. And truth be told, all of them thought he would do a bit... More.

But Potter was amazing, even the foreign students had to admit that. Goodness, how that boy is not yet in the British National Quidditch Team, even if only as a replacement, they'd never know. He deserved it.

Too bad that the kid's "fight" with the Horntail ended so soon. All of them could watch them for another hour or so. But that would more than probably end with Harry being eaten, no matter how good he is. As the kid was dragged away by the school nurse, Rukia saw as the judges leaned together over the table. Their faces showed different expressions - Urahara wore his "what do I care" face, Dumbledore and Crouch seemed to be relieved, Bagman was happy while Madam Maxime and Karkaroff clearly were not.

"Look, they're coming back," pointed the girl at the -seemingly- reformed trio. The judges sat back to their places. The headmistress of Beaxubatons lifted her wand. A silver ribbon shot out of it, forming a big eight. Mr. Crouch came next - he gave the boy nine points. So did Urahara and Dumbledore. Bagman - ten.

"What for? He should at least take one point from him because of his injury. He did so with you." Asked one of their fellow classmates.

"True, but I think he might be planning something," the girl analysed. The remaining judge - Karkaroff - gave Potter a four. It was clear that the man was anything but fair to the boy. The crowd slowly started to make their way back to the castle, and so did they, just to be stopped by Urahara.

"Hey," grinned the blonde. "Good job. I didn't know you're able to pull out of such a binding. Who taught you that one?"

"I did," said the girl icily. "And Tessai-san was the one who taught me."

"Ichigo! Rukia!" Somebody yelled. They all turned to see Renji running towards them. "Good. You're in one piece."

"I am. But... Where on earth were you? Now that you mention it, I didn't see you at the arena."

"That's because I wasn't," scowled the redhead. "That damned caretaker caught me when I accidentally spilled my stuff onto the floor."

"Now, now, Abarai-san, stop cursing."

"Hey, Rukia! You coming?" yelled a strawberry-blonde girl.

"Just a moment, Rangiku!"

"Where are you going?" asked the champion.

"We're going to fetch some things from the village nearby. To celebrate your victory."

"What? I didn't win."

"True, but you were still in the top three. Actally, you'd probably be number two, if Karkaroff didn't favor Krum so much.''

"She's right there - even Madam Maxime was shocked. I don't doubt that she'll give a piece of her mind about this when she has the chance," said Urahara

"Anyway, I have to go now. And you," she turned to Ichigo. "Do not go anywhere until I come for you, got it?"

And with that she was gone.

-end-of-chapter -

_Hi there! Has been a while, right? :D I'm so sorry, but school of course is still going on, my dad and mother alway give me a little speech if I bring home worse than a four. (I think it's mark B in America). And I have to admit that I became kinda lazy, too... Anyway, here is the new chapter! Mistakes could be thanked to that I'm afraid of re-reading this chapter. Dunno why. And I usually suck at writing anything action-like. Sorry. ^^" Have a good day! (Or night.)_

_1., I've added an incantation, thanks to the warning of __Asasininja4827__. Because even if Ichigo can control his reiatsu better, without an incantation it'd more than probably blow up. Thank you! __(It maybe not perfect, but it was the best so far that came into my mind.)_

_2., The chapter came back from my beta. __(__Aww, thank you that you've checked it even when I've already uploaded it!__ This way I had to re-read it, and correct a few more things...Without you, I'd never do so. Thank you one again!)_


	6. Fieldtrip

_NOTICE_

_There will be a field trip on December 11th. All students from the third year and up may take part, along with the guest schools, therefore all of their lessons will be canceled. The trip is voluntary. Registration is accepted until the tenth of the month._

_You will need:_

_- Your wand,_

_- Proper clothes and footwear,_

_- A backpack, which will contain: - two bottles of water_

_- Food_

_- and anything else you may require._

_Please, do not bring anything unnecessary with you. They will only weigh you down._

_The trip will start at 8:30 and we will return to the castle at 20:00. Lessons will resume Monday 14th December._

"This sounds interesting," said Hermione as she read the notice. Ron scowled.

"Sure. As if anybody would want to go to something like that."

"The paper is almost full. Wait, it's the third one," the girl informed the redhead. "Anyway, what do you think, Harry? Should we sign up, too?"

"Well, it's gotta be better than Potions with Snape."

"So that's two yesses. Ron?" The boy shrugged.

"Whatever."

"I'll take that as a yes." She grabbed the quill that was hanging next to the paper and quickly wrote her name down, then passed the quill to Harry, who then passed it to Ron, although he didn't seem too eager about it.

They all woke up early in the morning, to check a few things before their departure. They had just arrived at the Quidditch field when...

"Oh, look! I didn't think they'd actually have the guts to come."

"Shut up, Malfoy."

"Why should I, _Weasel_? After all, I won't be the one returning in pieces at the end of the day. With your luck..."

"Shut up, and listen!" Hissed an older Ravenclaw student, then pointed to the arriving teachers and headmasters. The blonde guy, Madam Maxime and Flitwick were carrying some boxes seemingly full of different broken things.

"Attention, please!" yelled Proffessor McGonagall. The crowd immediately became silent. "Since most of you are too young to use or know Dissapparation, you will use Portkeys, one to five people. Those who have their license to Disapparate, please go to the left with Mister Urahara," Around five student from Hogwarts and all of the students of the foreign schools went towards Hagrid's house, then after a minute they started walking towards the gate. "Now, the rest of you, please come here to me, and then choose a portkey. Please be quick, we'll be departing within two minutes."

"Never, never again," said Ron after Hermione knocked him off his feet. He was as white as a wall.

"Never again what?"

"I'll never eat before using that thing," he scowled and pointed at their old book.

"Everybody arrived safely? Is anyone missing?" they heard Dumbledore ask. The trio quickly got onto their feet. The old wizard nodded. "Good. Kisuke, would you be so kind..?"

"Sure," nodded the blonde. "Now then, where should I start? Oh, yes... First everybody will get a paper with a number written on it from one to twenty. These are the numbers of the teams. You'll be split up into groups of three or four, in some case five. Unfortunately I cannot assure you that you and your friends will be in the same team..." A few students exchanged worried looks. "After all, we're doing this to test how well can you co-operate with each other. After you've got your number, just go to your team's plate," he said, pointing at some large, levitating plates.

"Your tasks are not going to be easy," continued Madam Maxime. "Ze forest is full of magical creatures and not all of 'zem is happy to see you in zere. So your goal will be to get zrough it without serious injuries. But you won't be fighting against only ze forest - several of us set up magical traps, so be careful."

"And for every successfully finished task you'll get points. And one more warning - not all of them will need only magic, but also your brains and braveness. Oh, and one more piece of advice - do not leave the path, for your sake. Now, is there anybody who does not want to take part in this field trip? Change your mind while you can."

A few students from Hogwarts and one from Beaxubatons raised their hands. The headmaster nodded. "Very well. And now, the teams..." He waved with his wand and several pieces of paper flew towards the teenagers.

"It seems like I'm in Team Six. And you?" asked Hermione after checking hers.

"Eleventh," scowled Ron.

"First," said Harry, a bit disappointed for not being with his friends.

"Well, then, let's go. Good luck!" said the girl, then turned and made her way towards her group. The redheaded student from Shinou Academy was already there, along with a boy from Durmstrang. Ron yelped when he saw Rukia and bald man standing under the number eleven, then shot Harry a look. He just shrugged and started searching for his own team, when a familiar vivid orange hair caught his attention. He looked up - the number one was shining above him.

"Hey. You're in the first team, also?" asked Ichigo.

"Yep," Harry affirmed. The Japanese boy grinned.

"Seems like fate to me. First the duelling and now this..." Harry shrugged again then paled at the familiar 'Harry! Harry!' of a certain boy.

"I can't believe I'm with you! And with another champion! This is amazing! Actually, I didn't really want to come at first, but when I saw that you'd already signed up, I knew I just had to!" chirped the boy. Ichigo looked at Harry.

"That's great, Collin."

"I'm really interested what kind of trials they set up, aren't you? This is the first time I've taken part in something like this. Remember my younger brother? He wanted to come too, but..."

"Zat's interesting and everything, but do you ever shut up?" asked a girl from Beaxubatons. Ichigo nodded.

"She's right you know. In a forest you may never know who or what is watching you. And not all of them will be friendly. Some of them may want to eat you, or your soul!" he finished brightly. The boy blushed and mumbled a sorry. Another girl from Durmstrang, who had just found them, shot him a strange look.

"Everybody found their teammates? Good. Now, the tallest among you is the leader for the simplicity of the things. But of course he - or she - has to listen at the others opinion as well. Now, please take one path, and go. Good luck to you all." The orangehead looked around.

"Oo-kay? Which one should we take?"

"I say zat one," said the French girl, pointing at one of the brightest paths. The Bulgarian scowled.

"You sure?"

"Of course I am. Why?"

"Because the hardest ones are usually those, which seems to be the easiest. Let's go that way."

"Right, that's two opinions. Harry?"

"I'm with... Sorry, I don't know your name," he said, looking at the Bulgarian girl.

"Tala."

"Right. I'm with Tala."

"Ok. Err... Midget?"

"Collin. Collin Creevy. And I'm with Harry." The black haired boy heard as their "leader" mumbled something in Japanese, but for some reason he _felt_ that it means 'what a surprise'.

"Okay, then that is the way."

They stepped into the shadows caused by the tall trees. It was like something was cut - they could not hear anything else then the noise of their own steps and breathing. _This is bad,_ thought Ichigo, _if they can't hear the others, we won't be able to hear anything else either, until it's too late._

"I don't like zis," muttered the blonde.

"Well, I don't think any of us does."

Suddenly the earth started to shake. White light flashed, and a minute later each of them could see a giant wall of ice to the North.

-.-.-.-

Rukia gritted her teeth as she blocked another punch from the strange creature, protecting the whining Slytherin girl behind her - Parkinson, was it? Ikkaku himself was fighting with three of the animals at once, while Ron was running around like some fool, chased by two others. Somehow he managed to kick out one other. _Oh, that's just great,_ she thought as four other joined them. It's not like she did not have a good day without them, after falling down on the stairs, slipping on the floor in the Great Hall, and so on.

"Draco... Draco... Why aren't you here with me?" sobbed the girl. Okay, now the black haired Japanese girl had had enough.

"Okay, that's enough! You - shut up! Ikkaku! Ron! Get out of the way!" her white blade pierced the ground.

"Huh?" 'asked' the redhead.

"Tsugi no mai... Hakuren!" she yelled. Ice and snow erupted from the tip of her blade, and froze all of their opponents.

"Do you want to kill me?"

"Kuchiki! Are you out of your mind? I was fighting here!"

"And I had enough of it!"

"I am the leader!"

"Do you want to get frozen?"

-.-.-

"I won't," said a blonde boy crossing his arms. Renji sighed, hardly retraining his patience.

"Look, this is the only way to get through..."

"Then find another one!"

"Come on, Malfoy. It's not that bad."

"Shut up, mudblood!"

"That's it. Take one of those damned bags and start jumping, right now, or I'll make you do so!" yelled the redhead. Ikkaku and the boy from Durmstrang raised their eyebrows.

-.-.-.-.-

Rangiku sighed as she sealed her zanpakuto, then turned it back to a wand. Why did she have to release Haineko just to protect these kids, because when it came down to it they couldn't think of any good spells? Okay, so maybe those giant wasps scared the hell out of her too, when she first saw them, but...

"I'm sorry, Matsumoto-san. It was my fault. Please, forgive me."

"It's all right, Nemu. But how many times do I have to tell you to call me Rangiku?" The other girl bowed.

"I'm truly, deeply sorry." The blonde shook her head, giving up.

-.-.-.-

"So, all we have to do is to eat all of this?"

"Scaaaary," said the twins.

"Okay, who'll be ze first?" asked Belle, a French girl. "Isane?"

"O... Okay," she said, raised the cover of the bowl, then screamed, backing away from it.

"Hey, hey, what's wrong?" asked one of the twins, probably Fred.

"I... I hate... Fishcakes."

-.-.-.-

Ichigo stared at his white double in horror and shock - fortunately it was only him who knew that the thing was his inner hollow wearing a horned mask.

"_**An' ya know what was the best part? When they started screamin'. Music for my ears.**_"

Ichigo closed his eyes tightly. '_It's only a boggart. Only a boggart,' _he thought.

"_Course he is. And what do we do to boggarts? King?_"

"_Kill them._" His eyes shot open and raised his wand/zanpakuto. "Riddikulus!"

Shirosaki was now dancing can-can with a Hawaiian flower-lance kind of thing in his neck, wearing pink eyeglasses. Ichigo and his teammates started laughing, and the boggart exploded.

"_It's kind of sad to see myself like that, but good to know that yer scared of me the most._"

"_I've kicked your ass more than once. Do you want to repeat the feeling again?"_

"_I'll pass._"

"_Good._"

"Ichigo, are you all right?" Harry looked at him. Colin was still shaking

"Did you see its eyes? It was like he wasn't looking at you, but _into_ you..."

"Yeah, I'm fine. And... _Duck_!" he yelled, throwing himself at the boy, as a branch decided to attack.

"Expulso!" yelled Tala, causing the branch to blow up. They quickly got onto their feet.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome," she said, after she shot out a shielding spell. Ichigo avoided a longer root, before he jumped into the midair. The branches which were attacking him immediately stopped.

"Guys, don't move!" he yelled.

"What are you, crazy?" shouted the French girl between two slicing spells.

"Am not. I think they can feel the vibrations you make on the ground, that's how they know where you are."

"Great. Unfortunately we're not able to fly like you do. So tell us when you have a better plan." said Tala, before sucking in a breath and then releasing it in a jet of flames from her mouth. The plants seemed to back away from her. Collin whined as a tendril wrapped itself around his neck. Ichigo quickly cut them, then grabbed the kid by his collar and put him onto his shoulder.

"Next time if it comes to fieldtrips like this one, you better stay at home, 'kay?"

The kid did not seem to listen to him, as he was watching something above the earth.

"Hey... Hey... That's a rope! In the air!"

"What? Where?"

"There! Next to those purple trees!" The others looked up. There was really a rope in the air, around two metres away from the quickly rushed through between the attacking trees, grabbed it, and pulled themselves up. When their feet left the earth, plants stopped moving.

"Oh, great. Just fantastic! What comes next?" asked Tala as she hold on for dear life.

"Shut up, and go on!" yelled the blonde girl at her. Harry himself was now grateful to Olliver - if it weren't for the Quidditch practices, he'd already give up, and jump back to the ground. Ichigo stepped next to them, grinning, Collin now under his armpit. He tilted his head.

"Well, at least we know that you look great in this position." The others rolled their eyes.

"Right. And what now?"

"I'll check the area with Collin. And you continue on climbing.

"You're enjoying it, don't you."

"Yeah. Pretty much."

-.-.-.-.-.-

"What is the speed of a car if it arrives at its destination within five minutes, and it is seventy kilometers away from the point of departure? Okay, what the hell is this?" asked Renji, holding the piece of paper away from him, like a curse had been placed on it. Malfoy and the other boy seemed to be just as confused. Hermione sighed.

"Basic Physics. Give me that," she said, and took a quill. Renji passed it to her.

-...-...-.-.-

"Wait! Don't put that in it!" yelled Rukia, as she stopped Ikkaku's hand. "We only need four, it's clearly written here, see? Parkinson! Don't try to kill those carrots even more, they're already dead!"

"If you're so good with charms, why don't you do it?" said the girl as she tossed away the knife away from her, disgusted. For the first time in his life Ron agreed with her.

"Because I'm already doing _everything _instead of you!" Rukia pointed at the other knives which were cleaning the potatoes and the pieces of meat in a bowl which afterwards started washing themselves and so on.

"So what? A few more spells can't hurt."

"Pick that knife up, and start again!"

-...-.-.-.-

Krum looked down at the baby doll in front of him. Thanks to some kind of magic, it was crying as though a sword had been stabbed through it.

"Vat is the task here?" he asked a girl from Hogwarts.

"Isn't it clear? You have to change it's nappy." Viktor looked back to "his" child, and growled.

-.-.-.-.-.-

"How do you think they're doing?" asked Dumbledore.

"Oh, I'm quite sure they're doing well. Even though some of them might have difficulties with the tasks if they don't have the right teammates... Anyway, the first ones should be here soon, don't you think?" said Urahara. The other wizard nodded.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

'_Oh, that's just great,_' thought Harry as he looked at the huge rock which blocked their way. Okay, it might be a bit easier than going up against the Horntail again, but still...

"Okay. All we need is some blasting spell and a good defensive one."

"Are you crazy? Ze pieces of the rocks will kill us if we blow zem up!"

"That's why, as I said, we also need a shield spell."

"I have one." said Tala. Ichigo nodded.

"Okay, then... We'll do it at once. Tala, wait a moment before putting up the shield, or they'll be coming back at us."

"Do you think I don't know that?"

""Right, well... On three. One... Two... Three! _Kaimehime_!"

"_Détogie!_"

"_Expulso!_"

"_Zashte!_"

-.-.-.-

"My, that was a really big one right now!" said Urahara, snapping open his fan. McGonagall looked at him.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it a bit cold to use that?"

"I don't use it because the temperature is too high."

"Then?"

"It's stylish!"

"Oh, for the love of..." The transfiguration teacher rolled her eyes, along with Madam Maxime.

"Hot green tea, anybody?"

-.-.-.-

"_Aaand_, the last one!" shouted Matsumoto as she drank the remaining... _liquid_ from a bottle. "Thank goodness you've chosen well. It wasn't poison. Though I don't think they would really put that here."

"You've done well, Matsumoto-san."

"Thanks. Kids, are you done yet?"

"No!" they heard the annoyed shouts of the boys. She grinned.

"I just wonder which one they chose..."

-..-.-.-

"Okay, which way should we go?" asked Ichigo.

"Again? Come on, it's kind of old now..."

"Which way!"

"Let's go with the right one!" chirped Collin. _'Wow. This was probably the first time he didn't just repeat what Harry said, but actually what _he_ wanted to say,' _the orangehead thought.

"Anybody else?" The others only shrugged, so they took the one on the right.

"What's zat?" asked Belle - the French girl - and then she pointed at something that had nearly disappeared between the trees. Harry went closer.

"Let's see... It says: Run for it. What does that mean?" Something grumbled not so far away.

"What was that?"

"Ha... Harry..."

"Yes, Collin?" The boy said nothing but pointed at something big and white coming towards them from the nothing.

"An avalanche! Quickly! Run!" He didn't need to repeat himself - everybody turned on their heels and started running.

"Damn it, Urahara! If I'll survive this, I'll kill you, revive you and then kill you again!"

Somewhere, not so far away, a blonde headmaster sneezed.

-.-.-.-.-

"Hey, a team is coming!" shouted Sprout, excited.

"Coming? Much more running. It seems like they were the ones who got the avalanche," smiled Snape with an evil glint in his eyes, as he saw the upcoming snow. "And somehow even managed to outrun it. Let's put up the shield, shall we?"

Around ten seconds later five figure fell through the spell. All of them - save for the smallest - started cursing in different languages. Snape rose one of his eyebrows.

"Do you want to give me a reason to take points from Gryffindor, Mr. Potter, for having a dirty mouth?"

"No, Sir." said the boy, climbing down from the Japanese orangehead's back.

"Ichigo, I'm surprised. Last time you managed to put up a Kin against the dragon, and now you couldn't even pull out a..."

"Oh, just shut up! I know that the avalanche was _your_ idea, and _you_'d make it so that none of the binding spells would stop it!" Most of the teachers looked at each other - it still surprised them how the students dared to act with their headmaster.

"My, my, you don't have to be so harsh... A simple Danku would've stopped it." Ichigo threw his arms up.

"Why, thank you. Only the one which takes the most time if you're not able to do it without the incantation!"

"Uhh, I can see others coming," said Collin. He was right - a group of two boy and two girl came out through a gate.

"Hey, Harry, how has it been?" asked one of the Weasly twins cheerfully, while patting the shoulder of a girl who was much higher than him.

"Well... Strange. But what's up with her? And what is this smell?"

"They've borrowed some of Hagrid's animals, which have decided to not like us. And she had to eat some kind of fishcake..." Something exploded - they were all shocked to see as Ichigo was holding his huge knife-like sword in front of his headmaster's grinning face, his hands still smoking.

"Uhh... Shouldn't we stop them?" asked probably George. But in the same moment the teacher's cane has also transformed into a sword. They startled around each other, their eyes glowing with strange light, until McGonagall raised her wand. They both yelped - both weapons had turned into thick pieces of sword-shaped cakes.

"I won't, I repeat, _won't _tolerate fighting!" she yelled. Dumbledore watched them with an amused smile, while Madam Maxime seemingly didn't know what to think.

About half an hour later all of the teams arrived luckily - even if they were missing things like a bag or a coat. As the last team - Cedric, Yumichika and two students from Beaxubatons – fell (literally) in, chased by wolves, Dumbledore clapped.

"Very well. It's great to see that you've managed to pass the trials successfully. As we said in the beginning you also got scored for the things you've done and HOW you have done them. So it's just natural that those who were the best five teams get something in exchange... Which is seven extra weekends in Hogsmeade, ten boxes of the drink they like - I would go with the butterbeer, myself - and from sixty to a hundred galleons increasing in order of placing per person. Igor, please," the headmaster of Durmstrang handed him the parchment.

"They can't be serious, can they? There were three people at least in every team. For everybody that's... A lot of money they would have to hand out." said Ron. Hermione shrugged.

"The fifth is... Team Thirteen!" Loud cheering could be heard.

"The fourth is... Team Six!"

"That's us!" yelled Hermione.

"The third is Team Eleven!" Ichigo rolled his eyes as Rukia began clapping and jumping.

"The second is... Team Seven!" Yumichika and Cedric looked at each other, puzzled.

"And the first is... Team One!"

"What a surprise," whispered Rukia to Ichigo. He grinned.

"What can I say? We are the best."

-.-.-.-

"But really, if it comes to anything like this field trip again, bound my hand together, and don't let me sign up. It can't be even called a field trip... Much more a torture trip."

"Come on, it couldn't be that bad. After all, you weren't the one who had to work together with Malfoy. Although watching him trying to get out of the mud was amusing enough." Harry grinned.

"Wish I could see that once. And Ron, you weren't almost killed by an avalanche, were you?"

"No... B-but I was chased by spider-like things." They started laughing. Ron shot them a look.

"It's not funny!"

-.-.-.-.-

Hi! I hope you've enjoyed it. I've written this chapter purely for fun, because before Christmas we had to suffer a test-avalanche. (My class and me.) So here are the spells made up by me, in order:

Destroying princess - sounds strange, I know, but it was created by Urahara. xD

Bursting magic

Protecting will

And what was Malfoy's task? Sack racing! Now I even know the name of this game in English, thanks to my dear Beta, AllieOutOfWonderland!


	7. Prelude to the ball

_ Her eyes widened in fear. No, no, no, it can't be... It CANNOT be! She tightened her grasp on the asaguchi in fear. Renji was on her right side, bleeding heavily. The monster turned towards her, red energy gathered between it' horns. Something flashed and the world went black for a few seconds._

_"Kuchiki-san, are you all right?" somebody asked. She looked up._

_"Headmaster Urahara!" The blonde man gave her an encouraging smile and jumped as claws swung through the air at the very place where his neck was just a moment ago._

_"Oh my. What a sad sight... Unfortunately it seems like ex-headmaster Yamamoto was wrong. Kuchiki-san, could you fetch Abarai-kun, then go back to the camp? Then send the teachers here, although I think they've already arrived..."_

_"We have, Urahara," said a purple haired woman with piercing yellow eyes. However not as yellow as the creatures eyes are. Others appeared, ending their Shunpo. Captain Unohana and some of the elder, stronger students... Professor/Captain Zaraki and Captain Soi Fong, her brother... And a few other people she didn't know._

_"Tell us, Urahara. Is he...?" asked Byakuya._

_"Unfortunately, yes. But tell me, why did you bring students along with you?"_

_"They couldn't be stopped. And it's their fault if they die here because of their own weakness."_

_"Silence, you two! We have a serious matter on hand!" yelled sharply Captain Soi Fong as she barely managed to stop a blast of cero with her own shunko._

_"You are right. Now then, Kuchiki-san, it's time for you to go..."_

Rukia sat up, gasping. Those damned memories... Well, it's not like drinking fifteen butterbeers (along with something else; she didn't even _dare_ to ask what it was) had been a great idea before coming to sleep.

"Good, you're awake," said an unfamiliar voice. She looked around. Wait... This place is not their bedroom, for sure. Across her there sat the nurse who treated the champions' wounds after the first trial.

"Where am I?"

"At the hospital wing. Your friends brought you here, because you were screaming and throwing up in your sleep, but you wouldn't wake up. But no, no matter how many times I tell everybody that butterbeer is not as good as they think it is if somebody is sensitive to one of its components, which you are."

"I see... So can I go now?" she asked.

"Not yet... We have to be sure you're all right. That means if you don't fall asleep within three hours, you are free to go," the nurse said, then stood up. "If you need anything, I'm in there."

With that, she left. Rukia pulled up herself, scowling, then put her chin on her knees. Great. Now she was being held here, like some kind of prisoner.

"Rukia! It's good to see you awake."

"Renji?" Yes, it was him, standing in the doorway with a grin on his face. "Why are you here?"

"To check on you, why else? Actually, Ichigo asked me to do it, but I would've come anyways."

"Why didn't he come himself? He could at least do that much."

"Actually no, he couldn't," he grinned, barely holding back his laughter. "He is stuck in the library. Apparently some students thought it'd be a good idea to glue the doors together. He could of course easily break them, but then he would've had the librarian at his throat - I heard she threatened him that if he does that he will get the punishment of the century. And unfortunately every - and I mean _every_ teacher - is in the village."

"Why doesn't he just use a removing spell? We learnt those two years ago. Or the librarian?" The red haired guy shrugged.

"You know as well as I do that he never had a talent for spells that need carefulness. He is much more the type of guy who would rather jump in head first, even if a whole army is trying to stop him. It's always been you, dealing with that kind of magic and healing. Like a sidekick."

"A sidekick, huh? And did you know that you're only a third wheel for Momo and Izuru?"

"That won't work, since I'm not."

"Oh? And how do you know that?"

"Instict." The girl burst out into laughter.

"You and your instict! Just like Vice-captain Yachiru's infamous sense of direction!" The boy scowled.

"Anyways, Ichigo sent another message."

"He did?"

"Yes. He found out what might have sang that creepy song. Mermaids." Rukia grinned and boxed into the air.

"Yes! I knew it! Now, again, how much do you have to pay me for it?"

"... I'd hoped you 'd forgotten about that one."

-.-.-.-.-.-

"But I've got another little problem," said Ichigo four hours later. "Apparently I have to spend a whole hour underwater."

"So?"

"So how am I gonna do that?"

"Easy - Bubble-Head charm."

"I don't think so - remember my last try of that one? I blew up everything in a ten metre radius. Besides to keep it up for an hour..."

"Oh, right."

"Well, then how 'bout your mask?" asked Renji. They looked at him, shocked. "Why? All of the charms he could try to use would either - as he said - blow up the whole area, or dry the lake out. Oh, yeah, I guess that's another way to do it, though I don't think that the judges would like that one."

"I dunno... I don't even really know how it is that thing works for things outside of combat."

"Well, then! What's the problem? Worst case scenario, either you kill us, or we kill you."  
>"Like that could happen."<p>

"I still say give it a shot," said the red haired Japanese man. Ichigo grimaced but nodded.

"Damn. Another conversation with somebody I really don't want to have a conversation with."

"_That hurt."_

"There you are!" someone yelled.

"Urahara!"

"_**Professor**_ Urahara!" Rukia shot a look at Ichigo. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I'm here just to ask him if he has chosen already," said their Academy's headmaster, grinning at Ichigo. He avoided his eyes.

"Yes, I did."

"And? Have you asked yet?"

"... No."

"Well, then you better be fast, before somebody else does."

"Her? No way. She is grumpy, violent and..."

"What are you two talking about?" asked Rukia looking from Ichigo to Urahara. The blonde smiled.

"I think now is the time, Kurosaki."

"Time for what?"

"But..."

"No buts."

"Fine," he took a deep breath. "?"

"Huh?"

"The idiot wants to know whether you'll come with him to the Yule ball on the 24th, or not," said Renji, trying to help his friend out, but all he got as thanks was a smack across the head. "Hey! What was that for? I was only helping you out!"

"Nobody asked you to do so!" They stepped closed to each other.

"Okay, guys, stop!" she yelled as she shoved them apart.

"What did I tell you about her being violent?" muttered Kurosaki, gripping his nose. Rukia's eyes twitched, but in the end she only sighed, then pull out her wand.

"Let me fix it. _Chokuchi_."

"Thanks, although _**you **_were the one who caused it," said the orange-headed boy, after the bleeding had stopped, and his nose went back to its original place. "Well, then, what's your answer?"

"It's a yes."

"Really?"

"No, gee, I'm joking," said Rukia, rolling her eyes.

"Right, but I've been waiting for more... I dunno... Thinking time on your part?"

"Disappointed?"

"Well,.."

"All right!" clapped Kisuke. "Now that's everything is settled let's find a partner for Abarai-kun as well!"

With that he grabbed the said male's arm and dragged him away. The duo was looking after them for a second before Rukia smacked Ichigo across the face.

"And what was that for?"

"For calling me grumpy and violent."

"But if you are... AUGH!"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Chokuchi - (Instant healing)

Short chapter, short chapter... xD And not even the best one...

Yeah, Ichigo might be even a little bit more OOC than usually he is... Let's just say that being with the librarian woman (forgot her name, sorry) for hours kinda got onto his nerves.


	8. The Yule Ball

The Great Hall was stuffed, as always at breakfast. Rukia looked down at her meal with disgust - for some reason they decided not to make any "foreign" food that day, only British which was way too... She did not know what. She just felt like in case she'd eat another bit, she'd throw up. So she stucked with the kind-of-common cereal, although Ichigo next to her seemed to be enjoying his meal.

Suddenly thousands of owls, along with a few butterflies flew in through the window. A large owl and a smaller black insect settled themselves in front of her. The bird dropped a box, then took off again.

"What's that?" asked Ichigo. Rukia, already listening to the message didn't respond. He waved his hand in front of her face.

"Heeey, Rukia?"

"Stop that!" said the girl in an angry tone. The teenager pulled his hand back faster than lightning, like he touched something hot.

"Okay, okay, calm down..."

"Ah, Kurosaki-san, Kuchiki-san!" yelled a certain blonde.

"What is it?" growled the ravenhaired. Urahara stopped with a slightly shocked.

"Don't worry. It must be her period," said Renji from across the table. He earned a bottle of milk in the face.

"Or the loss of sleep," added the orangehead, ducking before anything could land in _his _face. Even if it wasn't an insult... Well, she apparently wasn't in the best mood today.

"Oh... Anyways, would you two come to my room later this day? We'd have to talk about something."

"Sure thing," Ichigo. Their headmaster smiled.

"Great, Oh, yeah... You'll attend to Care of Magical Creatures with the Gryffindor today." They heard a few students from the said group growl. Only Hermione's face lightened up - what a surprise. "And since not everybody is here yet, could you tell them?"

-.-.-.-.á-.

The Gryffindors lead the students of Shinou Academy to the place where the lessons are hold. Some of them were already grinning, awaiting to see the misery on their face when they met the skrewts.

"Well, I don't 'now wether or not they told yeh about the skrewts," started Hagrid the lesson. "But the mos' importan' thing is - do not get close teh end of their tails. Ya'll find out the remainin' later. For now, I'll show yeh how to put the leash onto them. Anybody willing to do it first?" He looked around. Ikkaku stopped forwards.

"I'll do it."  
>"Good, good. Come 'ere." The students of Hogwarts smirked at each other, until one of them did not poke the other, pointing at the animal. Sooner or later almost all of their jaws were on the ground.<p>

The skrewt. Was. Shaking. In. Fear.

"How on the earth did he do it?"

"I cannot believe it..."

"It must be some trick..."

Meanwhile Rukia also noticed her "Chosen One" - probably the biggest in the group. She followed what Hagrid said and a minute later the leash was already on.

"What're yeh waitin' for?" turned the teacher to the Gryffindor and Slythering students. "Choose one an' put the leash on!"

A few minutes later the park was filled with students who were dragged by the skrewts which are wanted to get away from the strange group of Japanese students as soon as possible.

-.-7-sd-d7

"I tell you, they did something to those animals," said Ron, pointing his fork towards Hermione. She rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, like what? They told them "if you won't be a good boy, we'll do some evil Asian curse on you?"

"Maybe!"

"Oh, seriously..."

"There weren't any threats or curses," they heard the sharp voice of Kurosaki Ichigo. "You simply lack confidence while dealing with them."

"Gee, thanks for the head-ups."

"Ron, he's trying to help!"

"I didn't ask for it!"

"And I didn't want to give one," said the orangehead as he sat down. Hermione turned towards him.

"But really, what did you do to them?"

"Well," he frowned. "Mostly the thing I've told you a minute ago."

"I see," she bit her lips and murmured something that sounded like "it can't be that easy, right?".

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

A few days later, even if it was cold, the weather was sunny and clear. Almost everybody - including the Beaxubatons, Durmstrangs and Shinou Academy's students - decided to go out for at least ten minutes into the park.

"And how is it going?" asked Rukia in a way better mood than she was a few days ago. Ichigo shook his head.

"He isn't very keen on to tell me how it works. Altough he admitted that I can breathe with it under water, but has yet to explain how to do it."

"Hmmm... Well, that's better than nothing, right?"

"Rukia, if I don't.."

WHACK!

A snowball landed on his head. He slowly turned, shooting looks that promised death. His glare settled on the red haired Weasly twins, laughing their ass off.

"Okay, tell me... Which one of you did it?"

"Whaaaat, can't handle some snow?"

"Oh, I can handle snow just fine..." He looked at the black haired female, who nodded, and pulled out her wand. "But can you?"

"Wha.."

"Tsugi no mai: Hakuren!" A wall of snow shot out of Rukia's wand, who carefully examined how much power she put into it. After all, she does not want to kill them... Does she?

"That's cheating!"

"You're the one to talk," answered the orangehead and threw his carefully made snowball, which landed on one of the twins face, and ducked when one was sent towards him by the Potter kid. He was rewarded with a series sent by Renji, who almost immediately stumbled forwards. They turned to see Krum standing behind them, looking towards the lake, but the remains of the snow still did not disappeared from his gloves.

"Okay, that means one thing," growled Ichigo.

"An all out war!" yelled Ron as he spotted Rukia as his target. Unfortunately for him, he forgot about the girl's ice based abilities, even though they were demonstrated only a few seconds ago. So for about ten minutes he had been frozen in a layer of thin ice, but still thick enough to make him unable to move, until Hermione didn't feel like melting him out.

The park really looked like a battlefield right now. The Durmstrang students did their best against those of the Beaxubatons (only the boys were fighting against the other school - the girls have been looking from _far _away with clear disgust on their faces) while the Shinou Academy and Hogwarts' battle soon was noticed by the teachers, too.

Something hit Harry's head from the left. Hard. He looked and saw the headmaster of the Academy smiling, wand out. The blonde's cheerful expression immediately faded away as a bigger amount of snow landed on the top of his head. The black haired boy turned, and his jaw fell.

_Even Dumbledore?_

It was his downfall as the bald young man - Ikkaku, was it? - took his chance and sent a series of snowball towards him.

"Rukia! We need a shelter!" yelled Ichigo avoiding a few balls. The girl nodded and lifted her wand.

"Tsugi no mai: Hakuren!" A beautiful wall of ice and snow stood between the two schools.

"You're cheating again!" They heard the twins yell.

"It's called using what you've got!" shot Rangiku back, and her well aimed snowball hit one of the red haired teenagers at the ear. She ducked as a black haired and brown skinned girl rewarded her with one.

"If he'll be of no use during the ball, it'll be your fault!"

"Angelina, your partner would be me..."

"Oh, sorry."

A few hours later some students - mostly the girls - felt like they played enough and went back into the castle, ship or wherever they had to, to get dressed up. Rukia sighed as she opened up the box.

"What is that?" asked Rangiku, and pulled the dress out. It was lavender purple, halfway between a European ball dress and a traditional Japanese kimono "Hey, it's beautiful! Ishida really did well on this one, I must say. Ichigo will be speechless! The colour and the shape really fits you."

"Thanks. And what you three will be wearing?" Matsumoto smirked as she pulled out a vivid red dress from her wardrobe.

"Shuuhei will be shocked!"

"Rather, he'll have to clean up the stains from a nosebleed," murmured Rukia quietly and turned to Nemu. She was already wearing her black dress, which had a few silver patterns on it. Momo was holding a peach-coloured one, with a pair of strange long gloves. About an hour later they were all dressed, hair and make-up done. Rangiku could talk Rukia into wear pink lipstick and lilac eyeshadow, which was almost the same colour as the upper part of her dress.. She herself painted her lips bright red to match her dress. Nemu let her hair to fall down beside her like a waterfall, and so did Hinamori. Thinking about it... Rukia did not know who was the Kurosutchi girl going with. Well, she can save it for later...

"Ready to go?" asked Rangiku, grabbing her and Hinamori's hand.

"Well..."

"Come on!"

The boys' reaction worth all the preparing. As they were standing on the top of the stairs, after joining to the girls in the second room, she could see as most of their jaws literally fell. She giggled as she saw Ichigo glaring with wide eyes.

"You all right?" she waved her hand in front of his face. He finally came back to reality.

"Wha-what? Of course..."

"Is everyone ready?" came out Headmaster Urahara from his own residence. Although he was properly dressed, he still couldn't get rid of that ridiculous striped hat. He snapped his fan. "Great! Line up, and let's go!"

"Line up? What is it, kindergarten?" they heard Ikkaku growl. He was standing next to a brunette haired girl, who clearly had something wrong with her taste. Dress-wise. The professor only smiled.

-.-.-.-

The entrance hall was already full of students searching for their partner. Urahara stopped.

"Well, Kurosaki-san, Kuchiki-san, we'll part ways now."

"What?"

"I forgot to tell you? Your dance - I mean the dance of the five champion and their partners - will officially open the ball. As I can see, they're already waiting there." He pointed at the four pairs standing at the other side of the hall. "Good luck!"

"Hey... Urahara! Damnit..." Ichigo sighed as they watched their schoolmates get inside the Great Hall.

"Shall we join them?" asked the petite female. Her company shrugged.

"If we have to..."

Just when they got there the doors of the Great Hall opened. He caught the nods of Krum and the two champions of Hogwart's and he nodded back.

"Champions and their partners, please line up and follow me," said a teacher, after everybody found a seat in the hall. McGonagall, remembered her name the carrot-top.

Applaud broke out in the Great Hall as they entered and walked up toward the table where the judges were sitting. It was clear that those at the Hogwarts now outdid themselves - garlands of mistletoe and ivy crossing the ceiling that now showed a starry black sky, the walls were covered in sparkling silver frost... It'd be just too much to say everything.

Dumbledore was smiling happily as the champions approached the table, but Karkaroff looked more than angry - and he was doing a very poor job trying to cover it. Ludo Bagman, in robes of bright purple with large yellow stars, was clapping as enthusiastically; and Madame Maxime, who had changed her usual uniform of black satin for a flowing gown of lavender silk, was applauding them politely, although she shot sometimes annoyed looks at the Headmaster of the Shinou Academy, who was clapping like a complete madman. And the woman on his left... Ichigo's eyes widened. Yoruichi? What was she doing here?

"Mr. Crouch is missing," whispered Rukia to him.

It was true. The fifth seat was occupied by, judging from the hair colour and similar features, another Weasly son.

"Hey, Ichigo, Rukia!" Waved happily the brown skinned female, earning a disapproving glare from Madame Maxime. "Come on, join us!"

"Do we have any other choice?"

Yoruichi grinned.

"Nope."

"I feared that it'll be your answer."

"Captain Shihouin, what are you doing here?" asked Rukia. The woman rolled here eyes.

"How many times do I have to ask you to simply call me Yoruichi? We're relatives, for goodness sake!"

"Umm... No, we aren't?"

"Silly girl, everyone in the top four noble houses are related to each other in one way or other."

"O-okay..."

"And to answer your question, I'm here to check on my dear husband and favourite apprentice. I got special permission from Dumbledore."

"Everybody knows that I'm not your favourite apprentice," growled Ichigo. "Soi Fong is."

"Ooooh, jealous?"

"Not really." She laughed.

"Now, now, Viktor!" said Karkaroff suddenly, and more importantly loudly, with a laugh, "don't go giving away anything else, now, or your charming friend will know exactly where to find us!" Dumbledore smiled.

"Igor, all this secrecy… one would almost think you didn't want visitors."

"Well, Dumbledore, we are all protective of our private domains, are we not? Do we not jealously guard the halls of learning that have been entrusted to us? Are we not right to be proud that we alone know our school's secrets, and right to protect them?"

"Oh I would never dream of assuming I know all Hogwarts' secrets, Igor," said Dumbledore amicably. "Only this morning, for instance, I took a wrong turning on the way to the bathroom and found myself in a beautifully proportioned room I have never seen before, containing a really rather magnificent collection of chamber pots. When I went back to investigate more closely, I discovered that the room had vanished. But I must keep an eye out for it. Possibly it is only accessible at five-thirty in the morning. Or it may only appear at the quarter moon - or when the seeker has an exceptionally full bladder."

"I wish my school would have rooms like that, but it's only a very, very old school. The founders didn't have much imagination."

"But instead you have students who blow it up on regular basis," said Yoruichi, eyes twinkling with amusement as Ichigo reddened slightly. "So you got to admit that they were quite clever not to put anything that can't be replaced inside. Like the said room," she nodded towards Dumbledore.

Rukia smirked as she put a piece of chicken into her mouth.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing..."

"Yeah, su... Hey, how did you get that? There is no food on the table!"

"That's what the menus are for - you say the name of the food and poof, it's there! It's magic, believe me!"

"Tell me that the chicken wasn't poured down with anything made with sesame."

"I don't know! Hey, give my food back!"

"No way. You're not eating this."

"Give it back!" Students turned towards the struggling pair.

"Keep it down!" Ichigo reached into his pocket and pulled out a small glass fiola, and shook some pills out onto his palm.

Damn, Byakuya made him owe one. Again.

"Take these."

"Why?"

"Just take 're yummy." The girl immediately snacked the pills from him and pushed them into her mouth. Her eyes widened.

"Did I..."

"No, you didn't, but you were close to it."

"You two are quite a pair, you knew that?" asked Yoruichi.

When all the food had been consumed, Dumbledore stood up and asked the students to do the same. Then, with a wave of his wand, all the tables zoomed back along the walls leaving the floor clear, and then he conjured a raised platform into existence along the wall. A set of drums, several guitars, a lute, a cello, and some bagpipes were set upon it.

The Weird Sisters now trooped up onto the stage to enthusiastic applause; they were all extremely hairy and dressed in black robes that had been artfully ripped and torn. As they picked up their instruments, most of the champions and their partners stood up, walking towards the dancefloor. Except for one pair.

"Hey," knocked Harry's shoulder the orangehead. "Aren't you coming?"

"What? Oh!" Harry tripped over his dress robes as he stood up. Ichigo suppressed a grin then walked onto the brightly lit dance floor, holding Rukia's hand. (Were Byakuya there, more than probably he'd be dead by now. )

They enjoyed the dance more than both of them would've thought they would. The light of the candles give some strange atmosphere to the whole dance.

"You know," whispered Rukia, not quite believing that she'll say her following words herself. "You look quite handsome in this."

"Uhh? Th... Thank you? I guess..." She grinned at his surprised and shocked face.

"It's polite to say also something nice if somebody said something good about you."

"Oh... Well..." His face reddened, as he looked into the curious orbs of the girl's. She laughed.

"But you don't have to. Your expression says everything instead of you. You're lucky that you have them, otherways when you say something your friends might think that you'll try to kill them."

"Gee, thanks."

"You're welcome." Soon the other students and teachers filled the dance floor, so the champions were no longer in the center of attention. Yoruichi and Urahara danced past them, followed by Dumbledore and Madame Maxime, who, even for a so large woman, moved quite gracefully. They saw the other champion pairs a few times, too - Fleur had a stoic expression on her face, while Krum and Cedric clearly enjoyed dancing with their partners. Harry looked quite nervous for some reason - and it was clear as day that he wasn't the dancer of dancers. Finally the song ended.

"Let's sit down for a bit, ok?" said Rukia. The carrot-top nodded.

"I didn't know that you're such a good dancer."

"Neither did I. I mean, my dad made me to take some lessons when I was younger, but I've never been really good at it. But where did you learn it?"

"My brother hired every kind of teachers. What do you think, what have I been doing during summer?"

"That explains. Hey, can we sit here?" he asked a seemingly quite grumpy redhead. Ron growled but nodded.

"How's it going?" Harry asked Ron, who arrived only a second later.

Ron didn't sat down on Harry's other side, and crossed her arms and legs. Within minutes was asked to dance by a boy from Beauxbatons.

"You don't mind, do you, Harry?"

"What?"

"Oh never mind," snapped the girl, and went off with the boy from Beauxbatons.

"Not a ladies man, are you?" asked Rukia.

"What do you mean by that? I don't..."

"Guess who!" Harry shuddered as his head was suddenly pulled into something large and _soft_. He hear as the girl from Shinou sighed.

"Rangiku, it's not him..."

"Oh, my!" The female quickly released the ravenhaired. "I thought that you're somebody else... Hey, wait! You're the champion of Hogwart's! What are you doing here?"

"Ummm... Sitting?"

"No, no, no way! I won't let you to do so! This is a party, and everybody should enjoy it! Including you! Come on, let's dance! You don't mind Shuuhei, do you?"

The male gave a pained smile.

"As if I could do anything against it..." With that, the young woman dragged the boy back to the dancefloor.

"Have you seen Renji?" asked Rukia.

"Yes, he is dancing with Hinamori... Somewhere..."

"Poor girl."

"I agree." They were sitting in awkward silence for a few minutes, great contrast to what was going on the dancefloor.

"Okay, so... What do you say about going outside? It's kinda hot here," said the girl to Ichigo, standing up.

"I would be more than glad to."

"They overdid it a bit."

"Overdid it? That's a too weak phrase for it," growled the orangehead, waving away a fairy light. "But it's still better than what Professor Kyoraku did at last year's New Year celebration."

"Agreed. But the statues are still nice..." she muttered looking up at Ichigo. Her cheeks flushed as their gazes meet.

"They are..." he said in a strange voice. They leaned closer, and closer and...

_BANG!_

The two jumped away from each other as if somebody had shouted into their ears from really close, after barely waking from sleep. Pieces of roses and snow fell on them. Rukia looked away, her whole face burning.

What did they almost do? Damn these Christmas drinks...

"What are you to doing?!" barked somebody on the right.

"I didn't know that "minding our own business" is considered a crime," growled Ichigo, obviously not happy for the pair of teachers disturbing them like that. The potions master growled up before walking away with the headmaster of Durmstrang.

"So... Let's continue our walk... Maybe?"

Rukia shook her head.

"No, sorry... I think... I might've eaten something... I don't feel right... Gotta go."

-.-.-.-

"You didn't..." Why does, Rukia wondered, Rangiku's voice sound everything worse than it is.

"I did."

"Are you and idiot?"

"Rangiku, we've been friends for years and..."

"So what? You passed a chance to become more than friends!"

"What if I don't want to be more than friends?"

"You said that both of you moved at once, didn't you? This means your body and uncoscious knows something that your concious has hard time admitting... Both of yours, because it's clear his does. And now know that you aren't much more clever than him."

"Rangiku, don't be so harsh on her," said Hinamori.

"I'm not being harsh. But passing a chance like this? They'd be the perfect pair! Tell me, do you know people who match this much? Where he is rush, she is patient. When she has a hard time making a decision he just comes and problem is solved... Even you have to see that... Except if..."

Her eyes narrowed.

"Ex-except if what?"

"Except if he's your first."

Rukia blushed for the manieth time that day. Rangiku sighed.

"Oh, dear..."

-...-hhhhhhhhhh-

_**Gotta double my words. Oh, dear... I'm so hopeless at writing romance... That's (one of the reasons) why this chapter took so long. The other is me being lazy...**_

_**But! There is a minor Harry-Matsu pairing (sort of pairing) promised to . It'd be just such a typical Matsumoto... Glomping people from behind...**_

_**And yeah, Rukia's reactions to simple sesame are quite... Interesting. THAT was my own imagination, in case you didn't know, the original author never mentioned anything about she going crazy because of foods made with sesame.**_

_**Speaking of the author...**_

_**Seriously Kubo? Ichigo is part Quincy? Seriously? We'll find out that this new main-evil guy is his grandfather (or God spare us, real father, although that is hardly likely) and Ryuken was his mother's brother (on maternal side), hence him and Uryuu are cousins... (Different father, same fathers can happen, and with Kubo, you never know.) But that would make a logical explanation to why Ryuken and Isshin know each other and neither of them is dead yet... Err... There is something wrong with this sentence... So in Isshin's case, dead-er?**_

_**But what was wrong with the simple, human-hollow-shinigami-being thing? No, he had to add one more... What will be the next? Part mudsucker bloodymoonbunny? I know, I know, he's extraordinary, and has privileges about having awesome powers, but... *cringe***_

_**Rant end.**_

_**I still love Bleach. I'm just not satisfied. But this is still better than the fullbringer arc was...**_


	9. Off to Hogsmeade

The day's after the ball couldn't be called boring at all. Ichigo and Rukia were avoiding each other (well, Rukia was avoiding Ichigo) so obviously that Rangiku and Renji closed the two of them into a classroom to get things straight. (Although Professor McGonagall wasn't too happy when she couldn't get into the said room.)

After the things cleared more-less up, the champion could finally concentrate on the task before him again, with the needed help of Rukia. After many hours of inner-shouting and duelling with his other self (he told Renji that it quite much sucks to fight with somebody who is practically you, only a materialised, secret part of you), they finally found out how can he use his mask underwater.

"He's a total ass," he said, grumbling. Something glinted in his friends' eyes.

"I so do not know where does he got that from..."

"Enough with the sarcasm."

"Didn't even start it." Ichigo rolled his eyes.

"And these are only my friends..."

"Hey, you there! Hurry up, would you? Class has started!" barked a strict looking woman at them.

"My name is Professor Grubbly-Plank, the temporary Care of Magical Creatures teacher."

The raven and the orangehaired looked at each other, but did not say a thing.

It was none of their business, after all... Although seemingly the man came to like them, and it'd have been a lie to say that the feeling wasn't mutual.

"This way, please," said Grubbly-Plank, and she strode towards the edge of the forest, where beautiful unicorn was tethered.

"Oh it's so beautiful!" whispered a Hogwarts student. "How did she get it? They're supposed to be really hard to catch!"

The unicorn was so brightly white it made the snow all around look gray. (For some unspoken reason it reminded Ichigo to a certain midget's released weapon.) It was pawing the ground nervously with its golden hooves and throwing back its horned head.

"Boys keep back! They prefer the woman's touch, unicorns. Girls to the front, and approach with care, come on, easy does it…"

Rukia shot a grin at her friends, making her way to the animal, which immediately noticed her. As she lifted her right hand up, the unicorn gently nudged it with its nose. She giggled as if she heard a joke.

"Unicorns are one of the oldest kind of magical animals in history, next to phoenixes and dragons," explained the teacher. "Muggle stories say, their hooves do not touch the ground in order to not hurt the beings living there, or simply the grass itself. Of course, this is not correct. However, their steps are very light indeed. As you know, we use their horns in potions either in full, or powdered state, and their hair is used as the chore of wands. Those who have wands with unicorn hair chore, raise your hands."

A few girls put their hands up. She nodded.

"Good. It usually means that their wielder is noble, their heart and soul is pure, and have a tendency to help people. Who else knows what else the unicorn's horn is good for?"

As usual from what Rukia had seen, Hermione's hand was already up.

"They have the power to nullify the poisons, no matter what kind it is," she said, one hand scratching it's back.

"Exactly. Five points for Gryffindor. Now, unicorns are also... Hey, are you paying attention over there?" she shouted over to the boys hearing some raised voices, before continuing the lesson in a louder voice, so that they could hear it, too.

"So what was that big ruckus about?" asked Rukia, receiving Renji's shrug in response.

"Apparently the reason why that Hagrid guy didn't appear was because that Rita Skeeter found out one of his greatest secrets."

"As?"

"He's a half-giant," said Ichigo, his eyes looking at the small hut next to the forest, before yelling in surprise due to receiving an elbow in his stomach.

"What was that for?!"

"Do not even think about it!"

"About what?"

"What you were thinking about to do in the next few hours?"

"And that would be?"

"Killing that Rita woman. Either that, or telling him that he's not so alone in the world of half-humans as he thinks."

"I was not..."

"Yes you were! Remember, it is supposed to be a secret!"

"A secret is usually between two people, at the most," said Renj. "But in this case you have to talk about around forty or so people..."

"Which is already a trouble in itself!"

"Okay, okay... I won't go to him, promise..."

The first half of January passed quickly. All the students - the guest-schools' students included - was more than happy to hear about the upcoming Hogsmeade visit. Well, those above seventeen always could get a permission in some cases, but going all the way to get them was way too annoying. It was also usually for only two-three hours, not a whole day...

"Oh, your're gonna love it!" chirped Matsumoto, "Especially the Three Broomsticks! Although I admit that the houses could bear some redecoration, but it still has a kind of romantic feeling to it."

As they passed the Durmstrang ship they saw Viktor Krum on the deck, dressed in nothing but swimming trunks. Ichigo paled - although he supposed that the Bulgarian felt like the water was warm, his training sessions didn't go as smoothly. Even with Rukia and Momo to back him up with warming spells put onto his clothing, so he wouldn't boil up the lake...

The little village was not like any they had seen before. Well none of the wizarding villages or towns were like the other...

Renji laughed himself almost to death at the joke-shop of the village, and before he could do anything vicious, they had to pull Ichigo away from a heated word-fight with a man, who was talking about how would he close up and kill all the half-breeds. Just out of interest they visited the Shrieking Shack before going to the sweets shop, where the orangehead, to his greatest horror developed that he liked candies with the taste of souls... At least the label said that. Renji got a smack across the back of his head for a not really well-put joke, cornering the matter.

"It's like with people that were bitten by werewolves but not during full moon," explained Rukia, "They like raw meat too, yet they do not transform, so do not get really worked up. If you're worried, then go to Urahara..." With that, she left to check out some of the "dare cookies".

To finish the day, Rangiku dragged the group of six to the pub she told them about. After ordering four pepper whiskeys and two butterbeers (Rukia and Ichigo's protest started to draw attention, but the black haired girl also received a grin from the blue eyed female, that couldn't be misunderstood) they went to find a place.

"Doesn't he ever go into the office?" wondered Rukia noticing Ludo Bagman in a corner. Hisagi shrugged.

"Dunno, don't care. Although it's rather strange. "

The life in the pub continued just fine, until Rita Skeeter had not entered with the photographer.

She was talking fast and looking very satisfied about something. The group sighed as one man, as they noticed the golden trio, who were sending death-glares toward's the reporter. A bomb is going to blow up soon...

"Trying to ruin someone else's life?" said Harry loudly.

Yep, there it goes...

"Harry!" Rita said, beaming. "How lovely! Why don't you come and join-?"

"I wouldn't come near you with a ten-foot broomstick. What did you do that to Hagrid for, eh?"

Rita Skeeter raised her penciled eyebrows.

"Our readers have a right to the truth, Harry. I am merely doing my-"

"Who cares if he's half-giant? There's nothing wrong with him!"

The whole pub had suddenly gone very quiet. Skeeters smile flickered very slightly, but she hitched it back almost at once; she snapped open her crocodile-skin handbag, and pulled out her Quick-Quotes Quill.

"How about giving me an interview about the Hagrid you know. Harry? The man behind the muscles? Your unlikely friendship and the reasons behind it. Would you call him a father substitute?"

"You are putting that away. Now," Ichigo said in a threatening voice, not caring about Rukia's death-grip around his arm, and Renji's warning kick under the table, even if he did get the unspoken message.

_Do not get involved._

But he couldn't help it. A long time ago he had his share of humiliating due to a Quick-Quotes Quill. So nowadays he had a deep hatred for them and anybody who owned them. Especially Skeeter.

"Ah, we have another tribute here! Fantastic, simply, fantastic! Would you give us your opinion on this as somebody who is not involved?"

"You horrible woman," she Hermione, through gritted teeth, "you don't care, do you, anything for a story, and anyone will do, wont they? Even Ludo Bagman -"

"Sit down, you silly little girl, and don't talk about things you don't understand. I know things about Ludo Bagman that would make your hair curl… not that it needs it -" she added, eyeing Hermione's bushy hair.

"Let's go," said Hermione, "c'mon. Harry - Ron…"

"I'd still love to hear your..." turned Skeeter, but immediately shut up due to the dark aura that hung above the group's table in the air.

"I've got a feeling you would not like what he has to say," said Rukia, eyeing Ichigo warily, ready to jump in case he goes on a rampage.

**-...-a-...-a-...-ffff-...-aaa**

"Where have you been?" Rukia's voice made him jump.

"Err... Nowhere?"

"Do not lie to me. Either you killed Skeeter, or you've been at Hagrid's place."

"Okay, I was at his place? So what? Do not give me that look! I did not say a thing about myself! We only spoke about a few things, none of them cornering that... He only deserved to know that not everybody writes him down, even if they don't really know him, just because of what blood he has, or how does he look!"

The corners of Rukia's lips turned upwards into a grin.

"Softie."

"Yeah, I kn... What?"

"I said you're a softie."

"Am not!"

"Yes, you are!" She hit him in the shoulder playfully."Don't worry, it's not a bad thing. It only means that after closing every feeling in for so long, you're finally opening up!"

"Great, that makes me feel sooo much better after you calling me softie..."

Rukia laughed.

**-.-.-.-. -.-.-.-.-aaaa-.-.-.-aaaaa**

Hermione bit her lips as she watched the girl move between the bookshelves.

She didn't know what was she so afraid of. They parried and talked before not once, so what was this newfound fear?

Especially because of such a stupid reason... Might she be scared because of Ron's reaction? Well, she'll never know.

Plus, Ron WON'T ever say what is she supposed to do. Or think.

She put her finished homework into her bag, stood up, following Rukia to the furthest shelf from the door.

"Hey," she said, almost whispering. "Could I talk to you for a sec?"

"You're doing that now," the other female responded with a smile on her face, "But yeah, you could."

"I was thinking... About you and your wands."

"What about them?"

"It's just... They have a name, don't they? And they change into a weapon of your soul when you call it."

"Yeah, but you know that, too. Your point?"

"I researched this. It says that this kind of relationship rarely exists anymore, except for some countries, because wizards would like to believe that the power comes only from them. So it's forgotten now at most places."

"Yes. So?"

"Would you help me to find out my wand's name? I tried looking for information on it, but... Well, that wasn't really helpful."

The girl looked thoughtful for a second.

"You really are something different from them, you knew that?"

"Uhh, sorry?"

"Just look around. Most of us in the castle looks at the other schools students like they're trying to sabotage their champion. Right, there are some other exceptions, Krum, Harry, Cedric and another few characters, but that's the minority... And yet here you are, asking help from me."

"You are different too! You, Ichigo, and your headmaster! You could have easily defeated me at our first parrying section, but you hold back, so no shame would fall on me."

"I didn't held back as much as you think I did."

"That's not what matters. You aren't like the ones you've just described; and I've seen Ichigo and Headmaster Urahara go to Hagrid when he was depressed. And Ichigo helped Harry too..."

"Right... But back to the matter on hand. I will help, if I can. But not before the upcoming task. And I suppose you're helping Harry, too..."

"More-less."

"Then it's settled. After the task, I'll try to find some time to train you. Is that fine?"

"Yes, it is. Thanks."

**addaf-dgjadsfaé-**

Rukia watched the girl leave with a happy smile on her face.

She might be running ahead of time, but she could see her as a friend now. In a somewhat stretched way.

She sighed, as she pulled out the book again, before closing it at once.

She won't be able to concentrate. Not with a certain orangehaired somebody on her mind.

She didn't want to admit, but Rangiku might've been right - she felt more for Ichigo than simply a strong friendship...

-.-.-.-. -.-.-.-.-aaaa-.-.-.-aaaaa

**I hate this chapter. So much. No particular reason, I just do.**

**"Yays" for school tests on this week. I have three hours/day to learn, but since I want to function during the next day, eat and feel like I have life (even if it's a computer one) outside school, too, those suddenly perish.**

**Right, and now I'm whining... Sorry.**

**Oh, yeah. 3Alaska3 I totally forgot about fullbringers... I guess, even though I read that part, my mind simply skipped it. Probably because although I wasn't as interested in Ichigo's story (had it involved Shirosaki, I would've been) as what happened to Rukia, Yoruichi and Nel in these past "months". They're my favourites so...**


	10. Meet with the merpeople

"_That's not how you do it,_" he heard the disorted voice in his head. Ichigo growled, bubbles leaving through the teeth of his mask.

"_Then tell me how to!_"

"_I did. Twice._"

"_You're not much of a help, you know that?__"_

"_Or you're simply pathetic. Maybe I'll use the same teaching method as that creepy blonde guy did._"

"_Like you're the one to say who is creepy and who is not._"

"_Touché._"

"_But really. You're like the... _Woah!" he shouted suddenly as a half-man, half-shark swam past him. To his shock, the hybrid seemed to be just as dumbfounded, and took a head-start to the surface.

"_Hey, what the hell you're doing?! We're supposed to be training!_" yelled the other part of him.

He gotta find a name for him soon...

"_Well, I don't know about you, but if something almost bites my head down and then flees, I'd like to find out what was it.__ Ah, it's gone... __An__d..._"

"It's cold! It's cold, it's cold!" he yelled, jumping out from the water. Further away from the shore, his two helpers gave him a pitiful look.

"Ichigo, the next task is two days away. That's what you should be whining about, not how cold is the water, 'cause I doubt that it'll be warmer by then."

He scowled down at them, settling down in the air.

"But until then, I can whine about it whatever I want!" Rukia sighed and Momo shook her head, as the unspoken sentence passed between them - _he's such a child sometimes_...

"Come here, you overgrown baby. Let us dry your clothes, before going to Potions with the sixth year Slytherins."

-.-.-.-. -.-.-.-.-aaaa-.-.-.-aaaaa

"Look, he's back," Rukia indicated at a man who fell into the "really hard to miss" category - Hagrid. "I suppose the the seven of you have done your job well."

"Seven?" asked Ichigo, still not in a good mood due to Potions. Professor Snape had given them different tasks, ranging from the easiness of a first-year potion to those which would be hard to do even for the professional potion maker.

Naturally, he, along with Rukia and three from Slytherin got one of those. His blow up in the last ten minutes, ruining Rukia's potion that got acknowledging looks even from Snape, and according to the gossips around the school, he didn't give them easily.

"Yes, seven. You, Hermione, Ron, Harry, Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, and I've seen Urahara once or twice, too. Hey, it seems like we're continuing unicorns."

True enough, two golden, albeit hornless unicorn foals were standing there, receiving delightful sighs from most girls.

"Easier ter spot than the adults," Hagrid told the students. "They turn silver when they're abou' two years old, an' they grow horns at aroun four. Don' go pure white till they're full grown, 'round about seven. They're a bit more trustin when they're babies… don mind boys so much… C'mon, move in a bit, yeh can pat 'em if yeh want… give 'em a few o' these sugar lumps… Hey, what's goin' on?" he yelled, as one of the foals lunged towards Ichigo and started licking him. The orangehead shot deathglares at anybody, who dared to laugh, but that ended in even more laughter, and grinning on his friends' part, who were kind enough not to make things worse for him.

"It must've mistaken him for a real strawberry, professor," said Rukia, with a cruel smile on her face.

That made the class laugh even harder, for all of them heard the nicknames the Shinou Academy students used for their champion.

-.-.-.-. -.-.-.-.-aaaa-.-.-.-aaaaa

The universe must hate him.

The trial's day came way too fast, and way too cold, for he was sure that the temperature had decreased since his last training.

And Rukia was nowhere to be seen since last evening.

From what Isane and Rangiku told him, she didn't return to their room, after leaving with Urahara.

He scowled at the applauding and shouting audience. Fleaur and Krum had already been there, and Diggory arrived two minutes later. But Potter was still missing.

Then he heard panting, as Harry arrived, muttering "I'm... here..." between two gasps.

"Where have you been?" asked the older Weasly that was sitting at Mr. Crouch's place. "The task's about to start!"

"Now, now, Percy!" said Ludo Bagman, who was looking relieved to see the fifth champion. "Let him catch his breath! Champions, please come with me." He was spacing them along the bank at intervals of ten feet. When he was finally done, he pointed his wand at his throat and said, "Sonorus!"

"Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle," his voice boomed. "They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One… two… three!"

The whistle echoed in the cold, still air and the stands erupted with cheers and applause; Harry was the first to wade into the lake, without looking back. The other champions followed his example, some already had their wands out, some didn't.

Black energy swirled in front of Ichigo's face, blinding him for a moment, before he dove under.

Now he didn't have Momo or Rukia's assistance - so far he hadn't even realised how much he owed them for not freezing to death in the first minute.

It was strangely quiet and dark under the water, although he was grateful for that.

And he had to be grateful for his mask, too. Although he had no idea how can it do it, it kept the water away from his eyes and ears, while somehow filter out the oxygen from the water.

Well... His Hollow tried to explain it, but after the third time he slept in, he just smacked Ichigo across the head, and threatened to take over.

Something long and... Slimy grabbed his left leg. He turned back.

Oh, hell... He just had the luck to meet the giant octopus of the lake. And as it seemed to be, it didn't plan to release him for a long time.

He growled up, pulling his wand out, before turning it into the well known cleaver. Not really useful underwater due to it's shape, but a Getsuga Tenshou was enough to change the octopus' mind about letting him go.

-.-a-.-.-aaaa-...-aaaaa

Thirty minutes passed - so far he had the luck to meet with almost every inhabitant of the lake. He started to doubt whether using the mask had been a good idea, for it's energy seemed to draw the different creatures. He came across Fleur, who disappeared almost immediately, as if chased by something.

And then he finally heard the song.

"_An hour long you_'_ll have to look,_

_And to recover what we took…" _

The voice suddenly silenced, but then it was back again.

"… _your time_'_s half gone, so tarry not_

_Lest what you seek stays here to rot…"_

A cluster of crude stone dwellings stained with algae loomed suddenly out of the gloom. The merpeople were gray with green hair, silver fish tails.

And they didn't look friendly at all with spears clutched in their hands. They were watching him with narrowed eyes that sent a chill up in his spine - although it could have simply been the cold of the water.

At a village square like thing, a choir of merpeople was singing in the middle, calling the champions. Behind them rose a sort of statue; a gigantic merperson hewn from a boulder. Three people were bound tightly to the tail of the stone merperson, another drifting slightly in the water. Rukia was tied between Hermione and a silver haired girl, her hair flowing around her face.

And Harry was there, looking anxious, as if he had no idea what is he supposed to do.

He knocked gently at his back. Harry spun around, his eyes widening from shock, before saying something. As no voice came out his mouth, he suspected it could have been only one thing.

"Yes, it's me. What the hell are you doing? Take your friend and go!" he said, while cutting Rukia's bindings with Zangetsu. To his annoyment, Harry shook his head, mouthing something.

"What do you mean you can't?! Of course, you can! Your task is to..." He couldn't finish his sentence, as the merpeople started screeching animatedly. They saw something monstrous cutting through the water toward them: a human body in swimming trunks with the head of a shark… It was Krum. He appeared to have transfigured himself- but badly.

Ichigo wanted to smack himself across the head. It was only Krum who scared him to death?

He shook his head, and grabbed Rukia's arm pulling her with himself, trying to reach the surface sooner than Krum.

Although he said he could care less about winning the tournament, Urahara and Rukia would kill him, if he didn't do as much as he could. Or at least the half of it. And he valued his life, thank you very much.

By the way, was it just him, or his hand holding onto the girl started to _literally freeze_?

And then he finally reached the surface, just two seconds before Krum and Hermione did. He looked around - Harry was still nowhere to be seen. He cursed under his breath as he saw Harry sinking toward's the bottom, although Ron and the girl soon reached the surface.

"Ichigo?" asked Rukia slightly puzzled.

-.-aaa-.-.-dddd-.-gdd-a-ad-

Ichigo and Krum has already reached the surface, but he himself needed to deal with two people. Harry pushed up Ron and the girl but this movement made him sink towards the bottom of the lake. Deeper... And deeper. The wand fell out of his hand, and closed his eyes. Everything was black. But it was good. It embraced him, made him feel warmer... He let most of his remaining air with a shig...And then he felt pain in his arm which pulled him back from half - unconcioussnes. His eyes shot open.

"'Are you crazy?" He tried to back away which was almost impossible, due to the strength of the grip. Ichigo from this close was even scarier than the half-shark Krum - black and golden eyes were glaring at him and promised death. The mask was even worse. It was kind of skull shaped with red lines on it. It slightly reminded him the masks of the Death Eaters. But his own eyes started to close again...

"Damn it," he heard the other champion curse. He grabbed Harry's other arm too and started to pull him up with himself. He pushed with his leg, trying to help the other boy...

And then he felt his head break the surface of the lake, cold, clear air was making his wet face sting; he gulped it down, feeling as though he had never breathed properly before. All around him, wild, green-haired heads were emerging out of the water with him, but they were smiling at him. He looked up at his savior. The scary mask transformed into dark light and faded away revealing the face of Ichigo. He shot him an angry glare and a second later they were surrounded by three people. Two of them were holding the third one who seemed to be unable to swim.

"So what do we now, Ichigo? Should we just leave her here until Fleur comes?" asked Rukia.

"No. That idiot almost died while trying to save her." Ron, who heard that, paled.

"Are you crazy, Harry? You thought that they would seriously kill us?"

"But the song..."

"They only said those to make us not to wander off and to get back more-less in the time limit. Everyone who has some brains would have found that out," said the orangehead.

"I hope you didn't waste time down there acting the hero!" yelled Ron.

Harry was angry and felt ashamed. After all it was not his idea to join the Tournament. But he had to admit that his "friend-enemy" was right. Nobody else was wasting their time helping the others. Well, nobody, but the Japanese, as the merpeople seemingly were ordered not to help the champions... Ichigo sighed and let go of Harry, who immediately started to sink thanks to his inability to swim, before fighting himself back.

"Great, now that we talked it out, let's get going. And help me with her," said Harry to Ron shortly,"I think she's even worse than me."

Due to that the boys had to pull Fleur's sister through the water, the Japanese made it back to the bank sooner. They could see Madam Pomfrey fussing over Hermione, Krum, Cedric, and Cho, all of whom were wrapped in thick blankets.

Percy, who looked very white and somehow much younger than usual, came splashing out to meet them while Madame Maxime was trying to restrain Fleur Delacour, who was fighting tooth and nail to return to the water.

"Gabrielle! Gabrielle! Is she alive? Is she 'urt?"

"She's fine," they heard Ichigo growl."

Fleur had broken free of Madame Maxime and was finally hugging her sister.

"It was ze grindylows… zey attacked me… oh Gabrielle, I thought… I thought…"

"Come here, all of you," said Madam Pomfrey, then looked at Ichigo, who seemed to be... Day-dreaming. Of sort. "That includes you, too."

'"Ah, sorry.'"After all of them got a blanket, they had to drink a big cup of some kind of healing liquid. Harry was immediately attacked Hermione, and Rukia pulled Ichigo a bit further from the others.

"You did it. You did it without us. Work well done," she said smiling, then did the thing he wasn't prepared for - she hugged him, before releasing him with an apologetic smile. And then she kissed him.

"Tell me," asked the orangehead, still stunned, but not feeling uncomfortable at all. "Was there sesame in that drink?"

"I don't think so."

"Then it means..."

"It does." A stupid grin spread across his face.

"Byakuya is gonna kill me."

"He will."

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision," shouted Bagman. "Merchieftainess Murcus has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of the lake, and we have therefore decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the champions, as follows…

"Fleur Delacour, though she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Head Charm, was attacked by grindylows as she approached her goal, and failed to retrieve her hostage. We award her twenty-five points."

Fleur murmured something they couldn't hear due to the applause.

"Cedric Diggory, who also used the Bubble-Head Charm, was first to return with his hostage, though he returned one minute outside the time limit of an hour."

Enormous cheers from the Hufflepuffs in the crowd; Harry saw Cho give Cedric a glowing look.

"We therefore award him forty-seven points. Ichigo Kurosaki,"

Rukia winced... Why couldn't they say their names in the right order?

"Was the third. According to Headmaster Urahara, he used a technique which is more of an ability some people have, and although it's rare, it happens from time to time that somebody has this rather helpful gift. As the task said retrieve your hostage, and come to the surface, and did not say anything about going back to help his enemy, nobody less, which was indeed a very noble move. Although some would like to argue it," he said, looking mostly at Karkaroff. "Forty-three points. Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of Transfiguration, which was nevertheless effective, and was third to return with his hostage. We award him forty points."

Karkaroff clapped particularly hard, although there was a thin line of anger around his mouth.

"Harry Potter used gillyweed to great effect," Bagman continued. "He returned last, and well outside the time limit of an hour. However, the Merchieftainess informs us that Mr. Potter was first to reach the hostages, and that the delay in his return was due to his determination to return all hostages to safety, not merely his own."

They saw as Ron and Hermione both gave Harry half-exasperated, half-commiserating looks.

"Most of the judges," and here, Bagman gave Karkaroff a very nasty look, "feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However… Mr. Potter's score is forty-five points."

"There you go. Harry!" Ron shouted over the noise. "You weren't being thick after all - you were showing moral fiber!"

"That's not fair. You returned before him and even went back to help." Rukia muttered, holding his hand.

"You know what? I don't care. I got something much better," he said, still grinning.

"But I think Krum does. Even though you only got more with three points," she said smiling, before pointed at the Bolger competitor who seemed to be even less happy than usual.

"The third and final task will take place at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June," continued Bagman. "The champions will be notified of what is coming precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions."

The two of them went back to the others. He touched Harry's shoulders who seemed to be delighted.

"Hey. You were good."

"Thanks, but without you I'd probably dead by now."

"I don't think that they would have let you die without a word."

"Yeah. Maybe."

"Come on, Harry! Party in the Common Room!" shouted Ron.

"Well, then..."

"Just shut up and go."

"Okay."

"Hey, Rukia!" shouted Rangiku from somewhere the crowd. Ichigo winced as the girl suddenly pressed his hand so hard that the bones in it were near breaking. "Don't think I did not see that!"

"And there comes another headache," she said, sighing.

**adg...-agsaédféa-ggg**

**Aaaannddd finally they're together... Although I planned to do it somewhat later on...**

**Woah! Plenty of you hate Rita, I can see that! And although I haven't found out whether he'll kill her, or not... I can say that she won't return home with happy memories about him... :D **

**Ah, yes. Before you start to complain about "but his mask isn't supposed to work that way", well... Think of how many things did Kubo do. He should have been declared dead (I mean, really dead, sometimes it was only his backbone that kept his body together!) at least a thousand times, yet he lived! So I don't think that breathing underwater with his mask should be much of a problem.**


End file.
